Budget cuts at the CDC have mosquitoes cheering
The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) function as the national public health authority. Within the Centers is the Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases (DVBID). Its mission is to provide, at the national level, surveillance, research, diagnostic testing and assistance to state, local and foreign governments with regard to vector borne diseases. Those are illnesses carried by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas and other animals that can be transmitted to humans.
The budget for the DVBID in 2010 was $26.7 million. That line has been defunded in the Administration’s 2011 proposal, with $18.9 million added to the emerging infectious diseases area…
The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) has called for restoration of the funding for DVBID. Edward T. Ryan, M.D., President of the ASTMH, spoke with me recently about this issue.
This is the division that works on dengue fever, malaria, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, spotted fever and all the other illnesses we get from bug bites.
More at Budget cuts at CDC threaten efforts on bug borne diseases
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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 at 9:56 am and is filed under Original writing, Medicine, Public Health issues, Original writing, Reporting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
