Via CIDRAP, a report by Lisa Schnirring: Public health, food safety agencies brace for budget cuts. This could be a public health disaster on a very large scale. Excerpt:
As well, CIDRAP's flu news scan covers Ron Fouchier's resumption of H5N1 research, H7N3 spreading in Mexico, and the vaccine strains that will go into the 2013-14 flu shots.
Public health and food safety agencies are among the many sectors bracing for the impact of automatic budget cuts slated to kick in tomorrow, but there is much uncertainty about when and how the cuts will be felt.
A budget deal to hold off "sequestration" cuts appears next to impossible before the Mar 1 deadline, and yesterday the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a memo to departments and agencies outlining their responsibilities in implementing the measure.
The cuts were part of a bipartisan deal passed in August 2011 to raise the national debt limit and are aimed at cutting $1.1 trillion from defense and discretionary spending over the next decade. Sequestration would amount to $85 billion in cuts over the last 7 months of the current fiscal year, which works out to about a 9% reduction for nondefense programs, according to the OMB.
Over the past weeks and months the White House, health groups, and federal agencies have outlined the possible impacts on public health and preparedness. For example, in July Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., issued a report detailing the potential impact on nondefense jobs and services, which broke down the possible cuts in Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) grant funding for each state.
PHEP cooperative agreements, administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), enable states and four major metropolitan areas to improve their ability to respond to public health threats, such as pandemic flu, foodborne illness outbreaks, and bioterror events.
A report from the American Public Health Association (APHA) on possible sequestration effects on the CDC said the reductions would reduce lab and disease detection capacity. "The nation will be slower to detect and respond to new infections such as SARS and H1N1 when they emerge," the APHA said.
Sequestration would also shutter 12 of 20 domestic quarantine stations and shut down ArboNet, a key program that monitors pathogens in humans, mosquitoes, and wildlife, the APHA projected.CIDRAP is also ending the month with a news scan on tertiary vaccinia infection, Haiti's cholera plan, and the promise of $100 million from Michael Bloomberg to fight polio. If nothing else, that will buy a lot of ammunition in Pakistan.
As well, CIDRAP's flu news scan covers Ron Fouchier's resumption of H5N1 research, H7N3 spreading in Mexico, and the vaccine strains that will go into the 2013-14 flu shots.
