Tag: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • CDC awards $35 million in contracts

    CDC awards $35 million in contracts

    Photo: Katherine Welles

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded global consulting and digital services provider ICF three contracts with a combined value of $35 million to provide digital transformation, health surveillance, data management, technical assistance and communications services to its programs.

    The agreements include a $9 million task order with the Office on Smoking and Health to provide communications, marketing and partnership engagement services, as well as research and technical assistance support on issues related to tobacco control, including the development and implementation of campaigns and the release of Surgeon General reports.

     “ICF has partnered with CDC programs for over 30 years, and we have the right people and the right skills in place to meet their complex needs—from public health research to data analytics and IT modernization to communications and citizen engagement,” said Mark Lee, ICF executive vice president and public sector lead, in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to help CDC advance the critical public health missions of its programs.”

     ICF brings together public health, health technology and technical support services to help organizations solve complex challenges. ICF’s approach combines advanced analytics, industry expertise and enterprise technologies.

  • Study: Vaping up as Smoking Stabilizes

    Study: Vaping up as Smoking Stabilizes

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    In 2019, 14 percent of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes, essentially unchanged from 13.7 percent in 2018, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    However, e-cigarette use among adults rose to 4.5 percent, up from 3.2 percent in 2018, and almost one in four e-cigarette users had never been smokers.

    E-cigarette use was highest among young adults aged 18-24 (9.3 percent), with more than half (56 percent) of these young adults reporting that they had never smoked cigarettes. E-cigarette use among young adults increased by 79 percent between 2017 and 2019 (5.2 percent to 9.3 percent).

    The overall number of U.S. adults who use any tobacco product increased from 47.4 million in 2017 to 50.6 million in 2019.

    “It is troubling that declines in adult smoking appear to have stalled at the same time that e-cigarette use has increased—a finding that raises further questions about the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in helping smokers quit, said Matthew L. Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) in a statement.