The cuts will have a negative impact on efforts to “rebuild public health infrastructure,” CDC director Leandro Mena, director of sexually transmitted infections prevention, told the agency’s annual annual meeting in New Orleans. “There is no doubt about it,” he told Politico. “If there is no strong workforce ready, who will be there when the next epidemic hits?”
House Speaker’s Power of Attorney With Less than 2 Weeks Left to Estimated ‘X Date’ to Hit Debt Ceiling Kevin McCarthy Biden and President Joe Biden are in talks to strike a deal to avoid a default before Biden returns from a trip on Sunday.
While Biden suggested that unused coronavirus funds were “under review,” his health officials are critical to the state’s ability to fight sexually transmitted diseases and other infectious diseases. He is appealing to lawmakers not to exclude funding for disease investigators.
“We’re going to climb the hill to educate members of Congress on what success stories look like,” said Nate Fesic, director of HHS’ Communicable Diseases and HIV Policy Division. “Because one of the things they always ask is, “What do you get for the money we give you?” “
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
A bill passed by House Republicans in April would remove all unused COVID-19 relief funds from six bills Congress has enacted since 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would cut spending by about $30 billion.The bill works more like a message document for now, but after Biden Confirmed by reporter Public health leaders are bracing for the worst, with COVID-19 funding cuts “under consideration.”
“If they cut that funding, we’re going 15 years back,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. “If that money is taken away in an instant, overnight, we will lose the frontline workforce that knocks on doors, conducts outbreak investigations, guides people through the health system, and helps people get tested. ”And was treated. I’m really scared. “
Demetre Daskalakis, the White House’s deputy national mpox coordinator and head of the CDC’s HIV prevention division, agreed the cuts were “disturbing.” But he argued that there are several other sources of funding for public health and STD prevention programs, and many of Biden’s proposed 2024 budgets, including funds dedicated to HIV and STD prevention including ) will be optimistic.
But the cuts now being discussed would come at a particularly bad time in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, public health officials said.
A CDC report released in April found that syphilis prevalence, which was already rising, surged significantly in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising 32% by 2021, to 1950. It was the highest number of infections since the year.
The number of cases of parent-to-fetal congenital syphilis has surged by more than 200% over the past five years, leading to 220 stillbirths and infant deaths in 2021, the highest number since the early 1990s.
Overall, the CDC recorded a record 2.5 million STD cases, but officials said the figure was likely an undercount because COVID-19 disrupted access to testing.
Mena said the coronavirus started to spread at a time when the country’s STD workers were already in trouble after two decades of flat funding, but the money was being used against inflation. Considering population growth, this is equivalent to a reduction of about 60%.
“We’ve seen that result over the last decade,” he says. “Many programs were forced to close their clinics. Many businesses were unable to hire staff to meet the growing demand. We have had to limit partner services such as tracking, which is very important.”
The pandemic has forced many of those same clinics and employees to shift from treating STDs to treating COVID-19, setting off what he called a “perfect storm” and “we accelerated the current situation of [sexually transmitted infection] epidemic. “
Depending on how much more funding is cut in the final debt ceiling deal, the Public Health Service could be forced to lay off an already dwindling workforce due to pandemic burnout, prompting the government to focus on infectious disease control. may affect the efforts of Occurrence of new mpox Harvey said some U.S. cities have given particular priorities.
“Without a permanent flow of funds, we are very concerned that the system’s ability to test, treat and deliver the services people need will be restored,” he said. “We are going to have a complicated summer.”