An Australian CDC – Learning from a Literature Review of USA Publications

Abstract

Objectives: It has long been said that Australia needs a national centre for disease control and Professor Bob Douglas, Foundation Director at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU, raised this point. The Parliament of Australia Health Overview published in May 2023, states the Government announced $3.2M for initial design and consultation work for the new entity, an Australian Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) and funding of 91.1 million from 2023–24 was allocated to continued establishment.
Methods: In order to understand the USA CDC system, operational structure and health disciplines the centre focuses upon, a literature review was performed on 29th April 2025, using the Pubmed MeSH terms; (“Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.”[Mesh]) AND “prevention and control” [Subheading].
Results: 4,956 results were retrieved, and if the filter publication date [last year] was applied123 manuscript retrievals were included. The topics focused upon included; COVID, drugs, sexual health topics, surveillance topics, chronic disease topics and other miscellaneous topics. In Australia, more specifically a focus should include pandemic and infectious diseases prevention and notifiable diseases coordination, cancer registry oversight, indigenous health, workplace health, diseases affecting Australians travelling overseas and factors affecting disabled or marginalised peoples.
In addition, other issues to consider while establishing an ACDC include; governance issues, technical specificities, document and guideline production. Some documents will be specific while others will be more all-encompassing.
Art that signifies our culture and heritage, aspects of health, wellbeing, disease, illness, community spirit or safety as per art created by artists represented by Jan Murphy Gallery, namely Ben Quilty or Sylvia Ken should also be included as part of the ACDC establishment as art plays a pivotal role in telling a yarnor aesthetically painting a story conveying information and ideas to viewers in a different way as compared to information.
Conclusions: Understanding and learning from other countries with examples such as this is a useful priority and necessity, being of upmost importance in terms of learning about how to establish the operations and functioning of an ACDC adapting it to a focus upon relevant Australian issues.