One of eight federal public health agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States Executive Branch of governement. It started as the Communicable Disease Center, an outgrowth of the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas in 1946. In peacetime, it went to work on other disease surveillance, tracking polio and smallpox in the 1950s, and working on prevention. In addition to Atlanta, they have facilities in Anchorage, Cinncinnati, Fort Collins, Pittsburgh, San Juan, Spokane, and Washington, D.C.