Neglected Funding for Vector-Borne Diseases: A Near Miss This Time, a Possible Disaster the Next Time

Abstract

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are some of the world's most common and devastating maladies. Despite this truth, the United States government had decided to drastically cut funding for the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases (DVBID) program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Fiscal Year 2011 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill [1]. Nearly US$27 million had been removed from the DVBID financial plan in the President's FY 2011 budget, slashing DVBID funding from US$39 million to US$12 million. Although the program is minimally supported by other agencies, this 70% funding cut would have virtually eliminated the DVBID program. Many organizations, including the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Red Cross, and others, appealed to restore funding for the DVBID program. At the end of July, the Senate restored this funding completely at US$26.7 million in their version of the FY 2011 appropriations bill, and currently we are waiting for the House to reveal its version. It is our hope that after reconciling the two bills, DVBID program funding will be completely restored. VBDs are easily targeted for cutbacks in public health funding because their incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and associated mortality are routinely underestimated. Their impact is not adequately captured by current disease burden assessments, and therefore VBDs are often not included in top-level discussions of disease-control priorities [2]–[5]. We feel strongly that funding cuts are short-sighted and that continued surveillance and control are worth the investment. In the absence of a proactive surveillance system that provides valid national and regional data on VBD transmission, outbreak epidemiology would likely be done by “official denial”, and subsequent public health responses would likely be poorly managed and of limited effectiveness [6], [7].