Elizabeth Pennisi
Infectious diseases once under control have resurfaced with a vengeance and, along with AIDS and new food- and water-borne infections, have caused deaths from infectious disease to increase by 58% between 1980 and 1992 in the United States alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta 2 years ago drew up an ambitious $125-million-a-year plan that called for increased monitoring for emerging infections, improvements in local and state public health facilities, and enhancement of international efforts to control the spread of these pathogens and to watch out for the development of infectious agents resistant to existing treatments. The U.S. Congress responded by allocating $6.7 million in 1995 and $10.7 million this year, a sum President Clinton wants to increase to $27 million in 1997. New links are also being forged with Europe and Japan to combat emerging infections.
