The public health agency that began as malaria control in wartime is what?

• A. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• B. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• C. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• D. World Health Organization (WHO)

Answer: (C)

This question is about the origin of a major U.S. public health agency. During World War II, a program called the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas was created to protect military personnel and civilians from malaria, focusing on mosquito control and disease prevention in areas affected by the war. After the war, that malaria-control effort broadened to cover a wider range of communicable diseases, becoming the Communicable Disease Center in 1946 and later evolving into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because its beginnings are tied to malaria control in wartime, the correct agency is the CDC.

The other options fit important public health roles but did not originate from a wartime malaria-control program: the National Institutes of Health is oriented toward biomedical research; the Environmental Protection Agency focuses on environmental protection and regulation; and the World Health Organization is an international health body established after the war to address global health, not a U.S. agency that started specifically from malaria-control efforts.