New head for the CDC - May 15, 2009
There seems to be one easy way to get a top public health spot in the new US administration: be a leading official in the New York health department. Today, President Barack Obama announced that he had appointed the current health commissioner in New York City, Thomas Frieden, to head the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The person who was the New York health commissioner between 1992 and 1997, Peggy Hamburg, is currently awaiting confirmation as the nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration.
Friedman's background includes extensive experience in various areas of public health, from fighting tuberculosis in India to working on tobacco control in New York City. He worked for the CDC between 1990 and 2002, including a stint in its Epidemiologic Intelligence Service, the crack team that investigates emerging infectious disease worldwide. A Newsday profile published in 2002 details his workaholic habits. A 2006 Nature Medicine profile also delves into his record in New York.
He takes over an agency not exactly in crisis but somewhat limping along; some had accused the previous CDC director, Julie Geberding, of politicizing the agency's scientific work. However, many experts have praised the CDC's response to the recent swine flu outbreak. More than 4,200 cases have been confirmed within US borders, including three deaths.
Richard Besser, the acting director for the CDC who has been handling most of the swine flu press briefings, will stay on at the agency in his job running its office for terrorism preparedness and emergency response.
Some AIDS activists have challenged Frieden's potential appointment before. They oppose his efforts to drop a reporting requirement -- instituted in the early days of the AIDS epidemic -- that means potentially HIV-infected patients need to provide written consent and get counseling before getting an AIDS test. Many public health experts think this step is today unnecessary paperwork, but some activists support the mandatory counseling part of it.
The position of surgeon general is still open. Any former New York health commissioners out there interested?
