Former CDC director Tom Frieden to launch new global health initiative

Dr. Tom Frieden is tired of the lack of progress in reducing the global burden of cardiovascular disease and of infectious disease outbreaks. So Frieden, who resigned as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after eight years at the end of the Obama administration, says he wants to do something about it.

With significant contributions from some top-drawer funders, is launching a new initiative that he hopes will partner with existing players in the global health sphere — the World Health Organization, the CDC, the World Bank, and others — to persuade more countries to ban trans fats and lower the salt content in foods and shore up defenses against