On January 1, 2024 the (interim) Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) officially launched, within the Department of Health and Aged Care, with the objective “to improve Australia’s response and preparedness for public health emergencies” by “protecting the health of all Australians”. The CDC would aim to prevent health threats posed by non-communicable chronic disease, as well as infectious diseases.
In an October 5, 2020 media release it was proposed that an “Albanese Labor Government will strengthen Australia’s response to future pandemics by establishing an Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC)” according to the statement Australia was the only Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country without a CDC equivalent. The CDC became a 2022 election commitment for Labor. [1]
On November 10, 2022 selected stakeholders were invited to engage and provide comment either generally or in response to 28 guiding consultation questions in the Department publicly released a CDC Discussion Paper . [2, 3]
The justification for Aus CDC is the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese endepahalitis virus outbreak [really?], the emergence of moneypox and the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires! In 2024, the interim Australian CDC started to build their “One Health and health security capabilities”. [4]
The interim Australian CDC has taken over the responsibilities of the Chief Medical Officer Group functions of:
- disease outbreak health alerts
- emergency health management, including management of the National Medical Stockpile
- communicable diseases
- national and international disease surveillance
- environmental health – climate change etc
The AUS CDC will be Australia’s WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) “authority“, in preparation for “the next pandemic”.