Obama Names NYC Health Commissioner Frieden Next CDC Director

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 18 May 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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President Obama on Friday named New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New York Times reports. It has long been expected that Obama would select Frieden, an infectious disease specialist who is "widely admired" in the public health arena, according to the Times. In his seven years as health commissioner of New York City, Frieden pushed to establish HIV testing as a part of routine medical exams and defended a condom-distribution program that hands out more than 35 million condoms annually. Frieden is expected to take office in June and does not require Senate confirmation for the position. He will replace Richard Besser, the current acting director of CDC, who will return to his position as head of CDC's coordinating office for terrorism preparedness and emergency response.

The Times reports that Frieden will "inherit a host of immediate and long-term problems" at CDC, including organizational issues, low morale and the Obama administration's health care reform agenda. "Health care reform also needs to be on his plate," Jeffrey Koplan, who served as CDC director from 1998 to 2002, said, adding, "There is a huge opportunity there to improve public health, and it's one in which any CDC director will want to be a player." Several health care advocates praised the appointment, according to the Times. Dennis deLeon, president of the Latino Commission on AIDS in New York City said that Frieden is "willing to challenge the status quo in an effort to make a difference." Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the not-for-profit Trust for America's Health, said Frieden is a "transformational leader" who "can take public health to a new place" (Harris/Hartocollis, New York Times, 5/15).

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