• July 14, 1949: Central Health Centre was created under Ministry of Health • January 1, 1960: renamed to Central Health Institute • August 12, 1960: renamed to National Institute of Health • December 17, 1963: merged with National Chemical Laboratories, National Laboratory of Herb Medicine and National Institute of Public Health Training • February 1, 1967: renamed to National Institute of Public Health Training • November 1981: renamed to National Institute of Health • December 23, 1994: re-organised under Ministry of Health and Welfare • December 18, 2003: changed to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) • December 2010: moved its headquarters to Osong • April 2012: National Central Human Body Resource Bank was founded under KNIH of KCDC • September 12, 2020: restructured into an expanded Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) under the Ministry with more autonomy and resources Source: Its history is in line with the major infectious disease outbreaks in South Korea. After the
SARS outbreak in 2003, the then-National Institute of Health was restructured to the American
CDC-like KCDC. After the
MERS outbreak in 2015, the head of KCDC was promoted to vice-ministerial level. In his special public address to mark his third year in office on 10 May 2020, President
Moon Jae-in announced that he will seek revision of legislation to raise the status of the KCDC to the administration. On 12 September 2020, the KCDC expanded to a Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) with more autonomy and resources - most notably 42% increase in its staff number and its Center for Infectious Disease Research of KNIH becoming a research institute of KNIH. Director of KCDC,
Jeong Eun-kyeong, will continue lead the organisation as its first Commissioner. == Organization ==