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[Clapping]
>> Thanks very much to all of you for your work and for coming
and for your commitment to public health
and to improving the lives of people around the world.
I'm-- sorry that I can't be here for the whole session.
I am literally coming from the airport.
I was in Kentucky today, Haiti yesterday, the day before,
Washington tomorrow and Iowa on Friday.
The stewardess from Delta said to me the other day,
you know Dr. Frieden you fly Delta more
than I fly Delta.
[Laughter]
But really the EIS conference
and especially this night is one
of my absolute favorite times of the year.
It's so inspiring to come together and to be able
to exchange with each other what we're learning.
In public health, in epidemiology,
at CDC and throughout the US and throughout the world,
we do have one core value and we have one core method.
Our core value is improving health and it's that simple.
Our core method is using data to improve performance
and that really is what our work is about.
The work of TEPHINET, the work of FETPs
around the world is incredibly important and it's inspiring
and it's growing the ground of data and fact
on which we all stand.
And it's also not only improving health in individual countries
but knitting us together more as one world where we need to learn
from each other, we need to exchange information,
we need to identify areas for progress, and we need to figure
out how we can make the biggest difference possible.
So, I think, that CDC does a lot
of fantastic work around the world.
We're in more than 50 countries now
with a very broad portfolio ranging from ***
to birth defects, from tuberculosis to malaria,
to non communicable diseases, to outbreak investigations,
and many, many, many other areas but that core
of making information known through the laboratory,
through epidemiology, through disseminating information
to those who need to know is incredibly important.
And I think we ought really are at a key moment in global health
because we've made significant progress in recent years.
And now we're faced with fiscal challenges.
We're faced with the continued emergence
and spread of drug resistance.
We're faced with the continued increase
in non communicable diseases but fundamentally we're going
to have tremendous progress because of that commitment
on improving health and seeing the lives
and faces behind the numbers and on using information
to drive progress because that's the most important thing we
can do.
If we can establish systems that track information and feed
that information back to the people who can make decisions,
then not only can we improve health in a specific time
but we establish a self correcting system that's going
to continuously improve health because no program, no project,
no person is ever perfect.
But any program, any project,
any person can always get more effective, better,
more effectively connected
and we have some critical challenges going forward.
We must get over the finish line in polio eradication.
Future generations will look back and judge us
on whether or not we did this.
And we have a long way to go particularly in Nigeria,
Pakistan, and Afghanistan
but the world collaboratively is committed
to doing as much as we can.
And for those of you working in this area, for the rest
of your careers, you'll look back on this
as an incredibly important time.
We also have continued challenges with the big killers
of ***, TB, and malaria and the opportunity
to do even more with less resources.
We also have a broad range of other infectious
and emerging diseases and unknown territory in areas
like healthcare associated infections in so many parts
of the world and the ability to make huge differences
in the neglected tropical diseases.
And the coming challenge of dealing
with the non communicable diseases.
We do have our challenges cut out
and information won't always change the world
but it's very hard to change the world without it.
So thank you all for the great work that you do
and I look forward to reading more about it and working
with you in the months and years to come.
Thank you very much.
[Clapping]