Infectious diseases are a leading cause of illness and death throughout the world. The enormous diversity of microbes combined with their ability to evolve and adapt to changing populations, environments, practices, and technologies creates ongoing threats to health and continually challenges our efforts to prevent and control infectious diseases. A CDC Framework for Preventing Infectious Diseases: Sustaining the Essentials and Innovating for the Future—CDC’s ID Framework—was developed to provide a roadmap for improving our ability to prevent known infectious diseases and to recognize and control rare, highly dangerous, and newly emerging threats, through a strengthened, adaptable, and multi‐purpose U.S. public health system. Although its primary purpose is to guide CDC’s infectious disease activities, the document is also designed to guide collective public health action at a time of resource constraints and difficult decisions, while advancing opportunities to improve the nation’s health through new ideas, partnerships, technical innovations, validated tools, and evidence‐based policies. The ID Framework outlines three critical elements in these efforts: strong public health fundamentals, including infectious disease surveillance, laboratory detection, and epidemiologic investigation; high‐impact interventions; and sound health policies. The document also describes priority activities for achieving these essential components of public health, highlighting opportunities afforded through scientific and technological innovations, new partnerships, and the changing U.S. public health and healthcare systems. Element 1. Strengthen public health fundamentals, including infectious disease surveillance, laboratory detection, and epidemiologic investigation Strong public health fundamentals at the local, state, and national levels—including disease surveillance, laboratory detection, and epidemiologic investigation—are the bedrock of U.S. capacity to protect the public from infectious diseases and to save lives during outbreaks and other unusual health events. These three core activities create and sustain a flexible, multi‐purpose U.S. public health system that reduces endemic diseases and is ready and able to respond to new threats. Priorities of Element 1 include working with public health and healthcare partners to sustain and strengthen public health expertise and practice and to advance workforce development and training, ensuring that core capacities are not eroded. • Modernize infectious disease surveillance to drive public health action • Expand the role of public health and clinical laboratories in disease control and prevention • Advance workforce development and training to sustain and strengthen public health practice Element 2. Identify and implement high-impact public health interventions to reduce infectious diseases Focused efforts to prevent and control high‐burden infectious diseases can achieve dramatic results within a short time‐frame, reducing disease burden and health inequities while saving lives and dollars. Priorities of Element 2 include identifying and validating new tools for disease prevention October 2011 | iii iv | CDC ID Framework and control and accelerating the uptake and broad use of proven methods for decreasing illness and death from diseases and conditions of special concern. • Identify and validate high-impact tools for disease reduction, including new vaccines; strategies and tools for infection control and treatment; and interventions to reduce disease transmitted by animals or insects • Use proven tools and interventions to reduce high-burden infectious diseases, including vaccine-preventable diseases; healthcare-associated infections; HIV/AIDS; foodborne infections; and chronic viral hepatitis Element 3. Develop and advance policies to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases Protecting the nation from infectious diseases requires sound, evidence‐based health policies designed to ensure appropriate development and delivery of infectious diseases prevention measures; reduce health disparities and improve the health of vulnerable populations; and promote engagement with global partners to reduce cross‐border disease spread and contain outbreaks at their source. To be most effective, these policies must reflect the best science and the best public health thinking, with broad input and consideration of varying perspectives to ensure recognition of the complex societal factors that affect the nation’s health. Therefore, policy development should extend beyond the public health and healthcare communities to engage stakeholders and other partners across multiple sectors and specialties. Priorities of Element 3 include ensuring the availability of sound scientific data to support policy development at CDC and partner organizations while working to advance established and new policies to reduce infectious diseases. • Ensure the availability of sound scientific data to support the development of evidence-based and cost-effective policies • Advance policies to improve prevention, detection, and control of infectious diseases