[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 208 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 208
Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of improving American
defenses against the spread of infectious diseases.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 31 (legislative day, July 21), 2003
Mr. Akaka submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of improving American
defenses against the spread of infectious diseases.
Whereas the Central Intelligence Agency's January 2000 National Intelligence
Estimate (NIE), The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its
Implications for the United States, found that infectious diseases are a
leading cause of death worldwide and that ``New and reemerging
infectious diseases will pose a rising global health threat and will
complicate U.S. and global security over the next 20 years'';
Whereas the World Health Organization estimates that infectious diseases
accounted for more than 11,000,000 deaths in 2001;
Whereas the NIE observed the number of infectious diseases related deaths within
the United States had increased, having doubled to 170,000 since 1980;
Whereas the General Accounting Office noted in its August 2001 report, Global
Health: Challenges in Improving Infectious Disease Surveillance Systems,
that most of the infectious disease deaths occur in the developing
world, but that infectious diseases pose a threat to people in all parts
of the world because diseases know no boundaries;
Whereas the NIE remarked that the increase in international air travel and trade
will ``dramatically increase the prospects,'' that infectious diseases
will ``spread quickly around the globe, often in less time than the
incubation period of most diseases'';
Whereas, the NIE commented that many infectious diseases, like the West Nile
virus, come from outside U.S. borders and are introduced by
international travelers, immigrants, returning U.S. military personnel,
or imported animals or foodstuffs;
Whereas diseases coming from overseas such as Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and West Nile
virus have had or could have a serious impact on the health and welfare
of the U.S. population;
Whereas the NIE found that war, natural disasters, economic collapse, and human
complacency around the world are causing a breakdown in health care
delivery and helping the emergence or reemergence of infectious
diseases;
Whereas, the danger of an outbreak of a deadly disease overseas affecting the
United States is increasing;
Whereas the rapid and easy transport of diseases to the United States
underscores that Americans are now part of a global public health
system;
Whereas the General Accounting Office emphasized that ``disease surveillance
provides national and international public health authorities with
information they need to plan and manage to control these diseases'';
Whereas the early warning of a disease outbreak is key to its identification,
the quick application of countermeasures and the development of cures;
Whereas the United States should strengthen its ability to detect foreign
diseases before such diseases reach U.S. borders;
Whereas the G-8 group of industrialized countries at the 2003 Evian summit made
a commitment to fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria;
encouraged research into diseases affecting mostly developing countries;
committed to working closely with the World Health Organization; and
recognized that the spread of SARS ``demonstrates the importance of
global collaboration, including global disease surveillance, laboratory,
diagnostic and research efforts, and prevention, care, and treatment'';
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plays an important
role in foreign disease surveillance, and a key CDC program to
strengthen global disease surveillance is its training of foreign
specialists in modern epidemiology through its Field Epidemiology
Training Programs (FETPs);
Whereas the CDC's FETPs have existed for almost 20 years working with ministries
of health around the world and the World Health Organization, and that
currently FETPs are in 30 countries throughout the world to support
disease detection and provide an essential link in global surveillance;
and
Whereas the work of the FETPs is critical to establishing a first line of
defense overseas to protect the health of American citizens: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Field
Epidemiology Training Programs and related epidemic services
and global surveillance programs should receive full support;
(2) the President should require an annual National
Intelligence Estimate on the global infectious disease threat
and its implications for the United States;
(3) the President should propose to the G-8 that the G-8
develop and implement a program to train foreign
epidemiological specialists in the developing world; and
(4) the international community should increase funding for
the World Health Organization's global disease surveillance
capability.
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