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The Atlanta facility is the place where deadly anthrax samples were tested last fall.

Inside one heavily guarded CDC lab lies one of the world's two known samples of smallpox. Like the other exotic, deadly viruses, it never leaves the Maximum Containment Lab, where it is at what they call "BioSafety Level Four."

No one enters without one of the famous CDC "spacesuits," to protect them from contamination. Nor do they leave without a thorough decontamination shower.

Preparing for Chemical Weapons

CDC Director Julie Gerberding has designated "smallpox preparedness" as a priority for the agency.

Last month, a blue-ribbon government panel recommended vaccinating a half-million hospital workers for smallpox, but said because of the risk of side effects, vaccines for everyone else would be rushed in, as needed, from one of a dozen rapid response centers around the country.

But what if terrorists use nerve gas or another chemical weapon? Samples from anywhere in the country could be rushed to a CDC lab, where tests can detect any one of 150 dangerous chemicals, within about 36 hours.

"So if we had a terrorism event we would be able to get blood and urine samples and again figure out what agents the terrorists had used and who had been exposed to those agents and what their levels were," said Dr. Jim Pirkle, deputy director for the science environmental health lab.

A Familiar Foe

Besides terrorists, the CDC still faces a more familiar foe: the flu, which believe it or not, kills about 20,000 Americans every year. Flu season is just starting, but doctors here have been busy for months on the new vaccine. Nancy Cox, aka, the "flu czar," is in charge of research.

"This year, at the current time, it looks like we've predicted very well what would be circulating this year," said Cox, who is chief of the influenza branch. "It looks like we're right on target."

This year, the CDC is telling parents to consider vaccinations for children aged six months to two years, who are now considered "high risk" for flu complications. Unlike the past two years, there is no shortage of vaccine, but the CDC is concerned that too few people are being inoculated.

Unless someone has egg allergies — the vaccine is derived from egg products — there is no reason not to get the vaccine, the CDC says.

The whole world looks to the CDC for leadership on the flu and other diseases, but the buzz doesn't come just from cutting-edge research.

One lab holds trays full of mosquitoes, bred for genetic research on malaria. The bug-stopping tricks learned at the lab, including a new insecticide-treated bed covering that's been effective cutting malaria rates, could save millions of lives around the globe.