By Emily Bridges, Director, Public Information Services

President Obama announced on Friday, May 15 that he had chosen a new head for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  His selection, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, is an infectious disease specialist who has served for the last seven years as New York City’s public health commissioner. 

A part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mission is conducting research on the prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS, and working with communities to help slow the epidemic.  The CDC also provides statistics about the HIV and STI epidemics and about teen pregnancy and birth.

An administration’s ideology can play a role in the CDC’s approach to public health.  For instance, in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a fact sheet with messages to encourage sexually active people to use condoms to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In 2001, under pressure from anti-condom activists within the Bush administration, CDC removed that document, replacing it a year later with a fact sheet that contained bias against condoms and had been altered to downplay their benefits and play up their risks. Learn more.