Top 50 Tom Frieden Quotes

What works most effectively for quelling disease outbreaks like Ebola is not quarantining huge populations. What works is focusing on and isolating the sick and those in direct contact with them as they are at highest risk of infection. This strategy worked with SARS, and it worked during the H1N1 flu pandemic.

Pregnant women who are in places where Zika is spreading should do everything they can to avoid mosquito bites. And we, as a society, need to do everything we can to control Zika. That means learning more about it; that means controlling mosquitoes more effectively. That means achieving a vaccine.

Controlling mosquitos is tough. It’s not quick; it’s not easy. It requires work day in and day out to track where mosquitos are and to apply safely the appropriate mosquito control methods.

At CDC, we work 24/7 to save lives and protect people.

If we vaccinate well, if we increase those vaccination rates, we can stop measles just as we stopped it before.

Flu can be serious, and it kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. Vaccination is easier and more convenient than ever, so get yourself and your family protected.

Using prescription drug monitoring programs is an important step in identifying patients who may be improperly using prescription painkillers.

Mosquito control in the United States is very much a local and state activity. Some states have excellent programs, other states not so much. It’s one of the reasons it’s so urgent to identify and spread best practices to try and track and reduce mosquito populations.

Physical activity – even if you don’t lose an ounce, you’ll live longer, feel healthier and be less likely to get cancer, heart disease, stroke and arthritis. It’s the closest thing we have to a wonder drug.

Reducing MRSA infections is critical because these bacteria are difficult to treat and are common in healthcare settings, especially among ICU (intensive care unit) patients.

I think we didn’t recognize how hard it would be to care for someone with Ebola who was desperately ill in the U.S., and how much hands-on nursing care there would be, and we didn’t expect two nurses to get infected.

To me, as a physician, when 1.78 million of our high school kids have tried an e-cigarette, and a lot of them are using them regularly … that’s like watching someone harm hundreds of thousands of children.

Ebola so scary and so unfamiliar, it’s really important to outline what the facts are and that we know how to control it. We control it by traditional public health measures. We do that, and Ebola goes away.

The United States has made remarkable progress in reducing both teen pregnancy and racial and ethnic differences, but the reality is, too many American teens are still having babies.

A vaccine that prevented tuberculosis would merit a Nobel Prize, but it’s just very difficult to develop.

Health is correlated with quality of life. If you get regular physical activity, have social connections, control your cholesterol, keep your blood pressure at a normal level, don’t smoke – these things can make an enormous difference not only in how long you live, but how much you enjoy your life in those years.

In addition to pain, disability, and disfigurement, lymphatic filariasis carries a heavy social cost. Those disfigured by the disease are often shunned. Women are often rejected by their families. Both men and women can have difficulty finding jobs.

The bottom line is that Ebola is hard to treat, and when the first patient ever with Ebola came to the United States, we thought the guidelines would protect the health care workers.

New, unfamiliar, and mysterious threats to our health are scary. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – where we identify, on average, one new health threat each year – we work around the clock with an approach that prioritizes finding out what we need to know as fast as we can to protect Americans.

Thanks to malaria elimination efforts in United States in the 1940s, most people in the U.S. today have never had any direct contact with the disease, and most doctors have never seen a case. That success means it’s easy to have a relaxed attitude about protecting ourselves.

Since the first large Zika outbreak ever recognized, in 2007, the CDC has had boots on the ground responding. Our laboratories have developed a test that can confirm Zika in the first week of illness or in a sample from an affected child.

I love… cheesecake in New York. I love whatever is sweet.

More than 50 million people around the world died during the 1918-1919 flu pandemic. That’s why we have epidemiologists all over the world tracking whether new strains of flu emerge.

MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is an important cause of healthcare-associated infections.

The more we look at drug resistance, the more concerned we are. It basically shows us that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics.

CDC is supporting community efforts by establishing competitive grants to support local programs to help individuals and families to get healthy and stay healthy.

We have to keep up our guard. We won’t get the risk of Ebola to zero in the U.S. until we stop it in West Africa. And Ebola is hard to fight. It requires intensity. It requires speed and flexibility.

We do prioritize addressing MDR-TB. We have done that for more than 20 years; that’s why we’ve been able to drastically reduce U.S. cases of MDR-TB.

The way Zika spreads is primarily through the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in places that don’t have screens and air-conditioning.

We want people to take responsibility for how healthy they are, and we want to help them live longer, healthier lives.

We know how to stop Ebola: by isolating and treating patients, tracing and monitoring their contacts, and breaking the chains of transmission.

People traveling to malaria-prone areas can protect themselves by taking steps such as taking antimalarial drugs, using insect repellent, sleeping under insecticide-treated bed-nets, and wearing protective clothing.

Women should use pain medication only as directed and talk with their doctor about all drugs they’re taking, including over-the-counter medications. Store prescription drugs in a secure place and properly dispose of them as soon as treatment is over. And never share prescription drugs with anyone else.

Our progress against malaria is impressive. But vigilance remains a critical ingredient to protect the health of all people.

In addition to not stopping the spread of Ebola, isolating countries will make it harder to respond to Ebola, creating an even greater humanitarian and health care emergency. Importantly, isolating countries won’t keep Ebola contained and away from American shores.

It is remarkable how surprising Zika has been. This is the first time we have had a mosquito-borne infection that can cause a devastating birth defect.

Zika is spread by mosquitos. They are tough to control. It will bite four or five people at one blood meal. They can breed in the amount of water it takes to fill up a bottle cap or, theoretically, even a drop of water. You have to get rid of maybe 90% of them or more before you protect people.

Cigars, cigarettes, and hookah tobacco are all smoked tobacco – addictive and deadly. We need effective action to protect our kids from struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine.

I eat a lot of fruit because if I fill up on strawberries or an apple, then I’ll have one small piece of cheesecake rather than two big pieces.

The way we work in public health is, we make the best recommendations and decisions based on the best available data.

As director of the CDC, one of the best parts of my job is announcing good news.

The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States has caused some to call on the United States to ban travel for anyone from the countries in West Africa facing the worst of the Ebola epidemic. That response is understandable. It’s only human to want to protect ourselves and our families.

Some hospitals screen all ICU patients and isolate those with MRSA, a process that can be challenging for both caregivers and patients.

Tobacco marketing often reaches children and youth and entices them to start using tobacco while they are still at an impressionable age. Nearly four out of five high school cigarette smokers will become adult smokers, even if they intend to quit in a few years. By the time they want to quit, they’re hooked.

I’ve treated so many adults who are desperate – desperate – to get off tobacco. They all started as kids. I see the industry getting another generation of our kids addicted.

We have learned a lot about how to treat Ebola, how to ensure that the people caring for people with Ebola do so minimizing their risk of infection.

In 2011, at least a third of middle school and high school students who smoked cigars used flavored little cigars. Six states – Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wisconsin – already have youth cigar smoking rates that are the same or higher than youth cigarette smoking.

Every health threat has a different nature and characteristic and appropriate response. Zika is a particular risk to pregnant women who reside in or thinking of traveling to places where Zika is spreading.

Vaccination is the single most important step people can take to protect themselves from influenza.