36 JULY-AUGUST 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Foreign Service Journal: What is the role of typical CDC personnel at an embassy? Audrey Knutson Luxenberg: CDC is the lead U.S. government agency dedicated to the health and safety of the American people and the lead technical global public health agency for the U.S. CDC works 24/7 worldwide to reduce morbidity and mortality and safeguard communities by addressing global health hazards that could threaten the United States and our interests. The goal of CDC’s global health work is to improve health outcomes and strengthen global health security by building the capacity of partner countries to detect diseases and stop health hazards. The earlier a disease threat is known, the sooner our response can begin to prevent spread to the United States and other countries. CDC employs leadership, technical, and subject matter experts who serve in our overseas offices. These offices are led by country or regional directors dedicated to CDC’s global mission: to protect people in the United States and around the world by preventing, detecting, and responding to disease threats—anytime and anywhere. CDC’s overseas offices implement our mission by: • stopping health threats at their source before they spread to the United States and other countries; • containing disruptive global disease outbreaks; • using global data for disease prevention and mitigation programs in the United States and other countries; and • saving lives and improving health globally. Thanks to our extensive global presence and decades-long, government-to-government partnerships, CDC’s global staff often receive the first call from host country governments and learn about outbreaks before anyone else. The Global Health Center (GHC)’s deep and long-term commitment to global health impact has saved millions of lives. FSJ: Are CDC staff located at every U.S. embassy? AKL: CDC has a network of country and regional offices in more than 60 countries. The number of CDC assignees per team varies by location. In addition to our bilateral country offices, since 2020, CDC has established six regional offices, covering Eastern Europe/Central Asia, the Middle East/North Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, and East Asia/Pacific. The two largest programs represented in our overseas offices involve global HIV/TB and global health security, but our country offices also include staff engaged in work focused on malaria, vaccine-preventable diseases, and more. CDC’s global offices engage regularly with subject matter experts from CDC headquarters and coordinate closely with host governments and in-country partners to address health threats. FSJ: What are the goals of the CDC at your post? AKL: Our global health security goal is to be America’s first line of defense against health threats that begin overseas and could potentially impact the United States. By preventing and containing outbreaks where they start, CDC makes Americans safer, reducing the risk of deadly diseases like measles, influenza, Ebola, TB, drug-resistant HIV, and other emerging threats from spreading into the U.S. We work toward this goal by improving our Ivoirian partners’ capacity to more quickly respond to health emergencies. The goal of CDC Côte d’Ivoire’s HIV & TB program is to support Côte d’Ivoire in achieving an HIV-free generation and in preventing the spread of TB among people living with HIV. We are working toward achieving 95-95-95 targets by 2030—this aims to ensure that 95 percent of people living with HIV know their status, that 95 percent of people who know their status are CDC’s global staff often receive the first call from host country governments and learn about outbreaks before anyone else. In November 2023, then State Department U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy Dr. John Nkengasong checks in on the CDC research station for Retrovirus Côte d’Ivoire (Retro-CI) in Abidjan, established in 1988 to address the HIV epidemic. CDC
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