INFO:More Disease Control Funding Sought

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01/10/00

More Disease Control Funding Sought

By ANNE GEARAN

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP)

The Clinton administration said Monday it will

propose a nearly 50 percent increase in the amount the federal

government spends on a planned national monitoring and control plan

to combat infectious disease.

The proposed increase, part of President Clinton's budget for

fiscal 2001, would add $20 million to the federal effort to

identify and stem outbreaks of disease such as influenza, Lyme

disease and hantavirus.

The money would help underwrite a planned new electronic disease

surveillance network. The federal Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention already is spending $44 million annually on the project.

``This new network will develop a two-way information highway

that will ensure the timely transmission of information from

physicians and health facilities on the front lines to state health

departments and the CDC,'' and thus speed the response to

outbreaks, a White House statement said.

If approved by Congress this year, the increased funding also

would help support public-private partnerships ``to ensure that

commercial labs implement and electronic reporting system

compatible,'' with the federal one already under development, the

White House said.

Clinton will submit his budget package to Congress next month.

The White House has discussed some details of the package in recent

weeks, to draw attention to initiatives the administration will

highlight this year, and test public reaction to others.

Between 1973 and 1999, more than 35 new or newly discovered

infectious diseases emerged, including AIDS and toxic shock

syndrome.

The outbreak of a deadly virus similar to an African strain

along the East Coast last year and a recent flu pandemic in Hong

Kong ``underscore the ongoing threat that infectious diseases pose

to our health and the increasing impact they have on health care

costs,'' the White House statement said.

About one of every six health care dollars spent in the United

States goes to fight infectious diseases, and infectious

complications in hospitals add about $20 billion to the national

health care bill annually, the White House said. Such diseases

account for about one-quarter of all doctor visits, according to

federal estimates.

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