Center for Disease Control Releases Hot List for 2014

The Center for Disease Control has released their list of most concerning and potentially impacting heath issues for 2014. In an effort to identify public health threats, the CDC has compiled a list of their top five concerns for the New Year. Heading the list is antibiotic resistance and drug resistant infections. According to the CDC, more that 2 million Americans get infections that are resistant to antibiotics every year and more than 23,000 die as a result of those infections. This year, the CDC is committed to working on a local, state and national level to prevent the spread of infection in health care settings. In addition, they will employ more advanced research techniques to identify, treat and hopefully curb the spread of infection through Advanced Molecular Detection.

Coming second on their list of concerns is the prevalence of misuse of prescription pain killers. 2014 will see the CDC continuing to track prescription drug abuse and becoming more involved on the State level with strategies to curb the abuse of prescription pain killers.

The CDC will focus on securing National borders from health threats in 2014. By reaching out to health ministries in other countries, the CDC hopes to make the United States healthier. With the increase in global travel, the necessity to reach beyond National boarders, identify, and react to health threats is imperative. The CDC estimates that disease can spread nearly anywhere globally within 24 hours.

In an effort to prevent HPV related cancers, the CDC will continue to focus on vaccinating young men and women for HPV. The number of those being vaccinated are currently well under target and the Center for Disease Control will continue and reinforce their efforts to educate parents and teens regarding the vaccine and preventable cancer.

The fifth item on the CDC hot list for 2014 is the global commitment to fully eradicating polio. In 2014, the CDC is dedicated to overcoming the challenges of immunization in areas that are in conflict or have banned the immunization. It is their goal that 2014 will be the end of a long journey within the health community to end the threat of polio once and for all.