Truman Establishes Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta

The U.S. Public Health Service opened the Communicable Disease Center on July 1, 1946 in Atlanta, succeeding the wartime Malaria Control in War Areas program. Founding director Joseph Mountin built the agency with a $1 million budget and 369 employees, most working on mosquito control across the malarial South. The agency was housed under the Public Health Service inside the Federal Security Agency, giving career scientists -- not political appointees -- day-to-day control.