# Why Centers for Disease Control instead of

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 21, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222 "2014-03-21T11:01:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222/1 "2014-03-21T11:01:37Z")

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Center for Disease Control? even if it is made up of different centres, it is still a single umbrella group.

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222/2 "2014-03-21T11:24:56Z")

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Probably the same reason we have the National Institutes of Health.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222/3 "2014-03-21T13:01:36Z")

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While I have yet to discover exactly why it was done, it is certainly intentional:

[QUOTE=Wikipedia]  
The organization was renamed the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 24, 1970, and Centers for Disease Control effective October 14, 1980.[5] An act of the United States Congress appended the words “and Prevention” to the name effective October 27, 1992. However, Congress directed that the initialism CDC be retained because of its name recognition.[10]  
[/QUOTE]

The [National Archives says](http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/442.html) it was renamed from “Center…” to “CenterS…” specifically:

> [@](#):
>
> Renamed Centers for Disease Control, effective October 14, 1980, by notice of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, October 1, 1980.

Presumably that October 1, 1980, notice would give the reasoning, but I have not found that online.

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**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222/4 "2014-03-21T22:54:02Z")

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There was a major reorganization in the CDC in late 1980 to early 1981 and the name change was one of the things they did to reflect the reorganization.

Cite: Federal Register Vol 45, No 200, CDC Notice page 67772.

At the time of the reorganizaiton, there were numerous organizational units that were referred to as “centers”. It \*is \*one umbrella unit within Health and Human Services, but there are distinct centers because of CDC’s multiple responsibilities. Geographically it’s not just one central campus either, although the main campus in Atlanta is large.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-centers-for-disease-control-instead-of/684222/5 "2014-03-22T15:57:14Z")

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Great user name/topic combination.