INFECTIOUS DISEASE: Satcher Warns Of Rise
U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher yesterday told Congress that "America is experiencing an alarming increase in infectious diseases," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Testifying before a Senate committee, Satcher cited a rise in contagious diseases of "22% from 1980 to 1992 because of outbreaks of new diseases, a resurgence of longtime killers such as tuberculosis and development of antibiotic-resistant strains of other infections." He said such diseases "are the third-leading cause of death" in the U.S. and "the number-one killer worldwide, causing more than 17.3 million deaths in 1997" (Stamper, 3/4). According to Satcher, the rate of increase "doesn't include the toll from the AIDS epidemic that's arisen since the early 1980s." He said, "Progress had been so great that three decades ago some experts predicted we would soon see the end of infectious diseases. Today, we see a global resurgence of infections diseases. ... Controlling disease outbreaks in other countries is a necessity, not only for humanitarian reasons, but also to prevent those diseases from spreading globally, including to the U.S." Scripps Howard News Service/Washington Times reports that National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Dr. Anthony Fauci cited the potential migration of tropical diseases compatible with a warmer climate in the Southern states and "health just across the border, particularly in Mexico," as threats to increased rates of disease in the U.S. (Bowman, 3/4). Satcher contended that "new technologies that allow people and food to travel thousands of miles across the world in hours have helped set the stage for the recent surge of outbreaks" (Inquirer, 3/4).
Stars N' Stripes Pitching In
Satcher noted efforts on behalf of the U.S. "to detect and respond to disease outbreaks, social problems such as drug abuse and homelessness and technological changes such as rapid air travel and global distribution of foods." The government is focusing internationally by training practitioners in developing nations on disease response as well as "supplying experts from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" to help monitor diseases (Scripps Howard/Washington Times, 3/4). The Inquirer reports that the NIH "has begun a $1.9 million program to provide infectious disease training for scientists in developing countries." Satcher also noted the CDC's collaboration with the World Health Organization "to establish a network for global surveillance and investigation of disease outbreaks" (3/4).