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Get Involved
Stop TB USA provides scientific and public health
information to the general public and to TB policy makers regarding
TB elimination activities.
Preventing the ongoing accumulation of deaths, disability, healthcare costs, and loss of family income due to TB will require the full participation at local, state, and federal levels by policy makers, the public health sectors, medical practitioners, professional societies, community-based organizations, and voluntary organizations. Greatly increased political will to eliminate TB will be needed in any fiscal climate, and advocacy partnerships are even more important to maintain focus on the goal of eliminating TB in recessionary times.
| A Call for
Action on the Tuberculosis Elimination Plan March 23, 2010 In 2000, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its report, Ending Neglect: The Elimination of Tuberculosis in the United States, detailing the history of efforts to control and eliminate tuberculosis in the United States and recommending a plan to eliminate tuberculosis in the United States by 2035. In late 2007, Stop TB USA assembled a Tuberculosis Elimination Plan Committee to assess the progress since the release of the IOM report and to formulate recommendations to update the IOM plan. The Committee's report, A Call for Action on the Tuberculosis Elimination Plan, released today on the Stop TB USA website, assesses how and why the IOM's tuberculosis elimination plan has not been fully implemented and provides updated action plans to move forward on its recommendations to accelerate progress toward tuberculosis elimination in the United States. |
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7/8/10 TB ADVOCACY ACTION ALERT!
2011 TB Funding - Contact Your House Representative Now!
July 2010 - Now is the time for TB advocates to contact members of Congress to support TB program funding. The House Labor-Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Obey (D-WI), is scheduled to vote on the FY2011 health spending bill (known as the Labor-HHS bill) on Wednesday, July 14.
The President's proposed budget for 2011 recommends $143 million for CDC's domestic TB program, a proposed $1.2 million cut, targeted to come from the program's travel budget. The subcommittee will be voting next week on whether to impose this cut. We are concerned that the proposed cut would likely impact technical assistance for the large, high-burdened states such as CA and TX, that rely on air travel from state and CDC national program staff. It is important to note that at this point, and until Congress has passed the final health spending bill (which is not expected to come for at least a few months), this is only proposed cut.
ACTION: Please contact your Representative between TODAY and Wednesday morning, July 12, EDT to prevent a $1.2 million cut to CDC's TB program.
If your Representative is listed below, contact them now. If your Representative is not on this list, call and ask them to work with their colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to prevent the cut. If you cannot make the call yourself, please urge your state Advisory Council members to make these calls.
Members of the House Labor-HHS
subcommittee:
Obey (WI), Chair ------------ Lowey (D-NY)
DeLauro (D-CT) ------------Jackson (D-IL)
Kennedy (D-RI) ------------ Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
B. Lee (D-CA) -------------Honda (D-CA)
McCollum (D-MN) ---------- Ryan (R-OH)
Moran (D-VA) --------------- Tiahrt (R-KS)
Rehburg
(R-MT) ------------- Alexander (R-LA)
Bonner
(R-AL)-----------------Cole (R-OK)
Put a Face on TB!
It is essential that TB advocates "put a face" on TB
by discussing how TB affects patients. You do not need to give
names or counties where patients live, just tell congressional
staff a brief story about the difficulties that individual patients,
including children, face such as loss of employment, stigma,
harshness of the MDR treatment regimen, etc.
How to Contact Your Representative/Senators
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 and ask for your
Rep. or give your zip code if you do not know their name. When
you are connected to an office, ask for the Health Legislative
Assistant. If you leave a voicemail message, include your name
and phone number so that they can call you back.
The following is a sample phone/e-mail
message: " I am a constituent and a healthcare provider
from (your town) and I am calling to ask Rep. _______ to prevent
a $1.2 million cut to CDC's domestic TB program proposed by the
President's Fy2011 budget. Due to state budget cuts, many states
are struggling to maintain their programs and treat steady cases
of drug resistant TB, which is very expensive and complicated
to treat. I am concerned that a $1.2 million cut will hinder
the ability of county programs in the large, high-burdened states
of CA and TX that rely on state program and CDC national travel
for technical assistance. I understand that the 2011 budget is
very tight, but I ask you to prevent a cut to CDC's TB program.
Thank you."
(Supplement your message with state TB data such as number of
drug resistant cases, etc).
Talking Points:
- The $1.2 million cut is slated to come from the CDC travel
budget, which may not impact the capacity of some county programs
but will impact large states that are reliant on travel for technical
assistance by state and CDC staff.
- Although the US reported an overall decline in cases in 2009,
this data is preliminary and CDC is investigating the causes,
which include reduced immigration and improved overseas screening
of refugees. There were 12 states that recorded TB increases
in 2009.
- The US had 107 cases of MDR-TB in 2008.
- TB
is the second leading infectious disease killer in the world,
taking over 1.8 million lives per year.
- Drug resistant TB costs $100-300K to treat vs. non-DR costs
of $10-12K annually.
- New tools are needed to more effectively prevent, diagnose,
and treat TB. The newest class of TB drugs is over 40 years old
and is inadequate for combating drug resistant TB. The vaccine
is only used for children in developing countries, as it has
little efficacy in preventing adult pulmonary TB.
Please contact Nuala Moore, at Nmoore@thoracic.org, if you have any questions.
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