As a Government Accountability Office representative told Congress on June 30, there are significant deficiencies in pandemic influenza preparedness at the federal, state and local levels ["World Not Set to Deal With Flu; Strategy for Pandemic Needed, Experts Say," front page, July 31].
Yet the administration's fiscal 2006 budget request would reduce funding for infectious disease control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 0.4 percent, cut spending on public health capacity in state and local communities by 14 percent, and cut dedicated funding for hospital infrastructure capacity by 1.6 percent. The Department of Health and Human Services has yet to finalize its five-year-old draft influenza plan.
Virologists and public health experts have described the next influenza pandemic as "inevitable," with estimates of 15 to 35 percent of the U.S. population sick and 89,000 to 207,000 dead.
In the fiscal 2006 funding cycle, Health and Human Services should fix the problems GAO identified, and Congress should provide the funding to get the United States ready for the flu.
KYLE KINNER
Legislative Director
Public Health and the Environment
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Washington
