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

Here are three recent articles on this topic, covering three different illnesses. Follow the link.

Whooping cough cases continue to rise in Upstate New York

New York is at the peak of its Lyme Disease season

Mumps cases decline in upstate and New Jersey, still high in New York City

Centers for Disease Control

The incidence of communicable diseases is such that they are unlikely to prove a hazard for international travelers greater than that found in their own country. There are, of course, health risks, but in general, the precautions required are minimal.

Certain diseases occasionally occur, such as plague, rabies in wildlife, including bats, raccoons, foxes, and other wild animals. Coccidioidomycosis is endemic in the southwestern United States and can occur in visitors to the area. Its incidence has increased in Arizona and California in recent years. Histoplasmosis is highly endemic, especially in the Mississippi, Ohio, and St. Lawrence River valleys. Sporadic cases and large outbreaks occur.

Cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome have been widely distributed in North America, with the greatest concentration in the western and southwestern United States. Infections in animals were reported in agricultural regions of the United States and Canada in 2006; infection in humans is rare.

Lyme disease is endemic in northeastern, north central (upper Midwest), and Pacific coastal areas of North America. West Nile fever was first documented in the United States (New York) in 1999 and has since spread throughout continental United States and southern Canada.

Outbreaks of diarrhea caused by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 have occurred in many areas and have increased in the past decade. Campylobacter and Salmonella are the most common causes of acute bacterial diarrhea.

Isolated cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE/mad cow disease) have been reported in Canada and the United States. For more information, see http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/ and http://www.usda.gov.

Outbreaks and cases of pertussis have been increasing for more than a decade.