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The Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases (DBMD) is
dedicated to preventing and controlling the many emerging,
re-emerging, drug-resistant, and other important bacterial and
mycotic diseases in the United States and around the world.
Changes in society, technology, our environment, and
microorganisms themselves are affecting the occurrence of
bacterial and mycotic diseases. For example, increased use of
out-of-home child care is contributing to the problem of otitis
media, which is reaching epidemic proportions among
U.S. children. The widespread use of antibiotics has coincided
with increased antimicrobial resistance, which is of special
concern in pneumonia, now among the top 10 causes of death in
the United States. Recent changes in food processing and
transport methods provide opportunities for the development and
spread of foodborne bacterial agents. Microbial adaptation is
leading to new or previously unrecognized pathogens.
The division's branches are responsible for investigation,
surveillance, and control of specific groups of diseases. In
four of the branches, epidemiology and laboratory sections
collaborate to provide clinical and epidemiologic information on
disease outbreaks and identification, diagnostic-test
development, virulence determination, and antimicrobial
susceptibility testing of the pathogens involved; the fifth
branch provides statistical and information systems support to
the division.
Website: "http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/"
[Summary provided by the DBMD]
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