CDC History of Tuberculosis Control - Medical and Public Health ...

Division of
Tuberculosis Control
with two branches: the
Program Services
Branch (which also
contained training and
surveillance) and the
Research Branch. In
1986, surveillance
became a separate
branch. The Program
Services Branch was reorganized into two
sections: the Program Operations Section and
the Program Support Section. The Program
Operations Section was responsible for
providing technical assistance and
administering cooperative agreement funding
to the state and local TB programs. A team of
program consultants served as project officers
for the project sites, and field staff were
assigned to various state and local TB
programs to assist with program
implementation. The Program Support
Section was responsible for training and
educational activities as well as program
evaluation through information collected in
the Program Management Reports.
In 1991, the name of the division changed to
the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. In
1996, the Division of Tuberculosis
Elimination was reorganized. The Program
Services Branch became the Field Services
Branch (FSB). The Program Support Section
of the Program Services Branch became the
Communications and Education Branch,
although the program evaluation activities
remained in FSB. The Program Operations
Section became two sections, Field Operations
Sections I and II, with approximately one half
of the project sites covered by each. A medical
officer was assigned to each of the new
sections to work closely with the program
consultants to enhance technical assistance and
program evaluation capacity. A third medical
officer conducts studies and other activities
centered around program evaluation and
program operations.
TB Control at the Millennium
CDC DTBE FIELD STAFF
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE
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The number of field staff positions grew from
a low of 25 in 1980 to over 60 by 1996. In
addition to assigning more Public Health
Advisors to the project sites for enhanced
capacity building, FSB has hired several field
medical officers serving as medical
epidemiologists and medical directors in
various TB project sites. These positions also
serve as key training positions to develop TB
clinical and programmatic expertise as older
TB experts retire. In order to better meet the
needs of the larger field staff, the Field Staff
Working Group was established to enhance
communication between headquarters and the
field, and a field staff training and career
development coordinator was added to the
headquarters staff of FSB.
The last group of persons hired in the Public
Health Advisor (PHA) series were recruited in
1993. Through attrition and promotion, the
pool of PHAs has continued to diminish
without being replenished with new recruits,
yet the demand for Public Health Advisors to
be assigned to the TB project areas continues.
FSB is in the process of completing work on a
recruitment and training program for juniorlevel
field staff to be assigned to state and local
TB programs.
FSB is looking to the future by continuing to
emphasize core TB prevention and control
activities, enhancing program evaluation
activities to help ensure that programs are as
efficient and productive as possible, and
working toward TB elimination.
TB’s Public Health Heroes
by Dan Ruggiero, Olga Joglar, and Rita Varga
Division of TB Elimination
Tuberculosis is frequently called a “social
disease with medical implications.” The populations
most affected by TB today are urban
and poor; they are the medically underserved
low-income populations such as high-risk
minorities, foreign-born persons, alcoholics,