Which agency is the leading national public health institute of the United States, operating under the Department of Health and Human Services?

• A. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• B. Department of Health and Human Services
• C. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• D. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Answer: (C)

The big idea here is identifying which U.S. agency serves as the national public health institute within the Department of Health and Human Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fits that role because it coordinates nationwide disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, prevention efforts, and public health guidance, and it carries out emergency responses to health threats. It operates under HHS, making it the primary public health arm of the federal government.

The NIH, while also under HHS, is mainly focused on biomedical research to understand and treat diseases rather than running the nation’s public health infrastructure. OSHA, meanwhile, is part of the Department of Labor and concentrates on workplace safety and health standards, not public health at the national level.

So, the agency described as the leading national public health institute under HHS is the CDC.