Idle CDC Worries Experts as Flu Season Starts
The fall flu season in the U.S. is unfolding largely unobserved.
The CDC's labs and surveillance programs are idle, thanks to the government shutdown, and outside experts are worried that essential data is being lost. Indeed, a CDC spokeswoman told MedPage Today that just about all of the regular apparatus that monitors flu and flu-like illness has been shut down. Some 80% to 85% of the usual staff is on enforced leave, according to Barbara Reynolds, PhD, the agency's director of public affairs. That means information about such things as pediatric influenza, antiviral resistance, admissions to hospital for flu or flu-like illness, and mortality and morbidity owing to pneumonia and influenza is not being gathered. There is no "national snapshot" of the flu season, Reynolds said. On the other hand, she added, some staff members are still working on non sub-type-able influenza A, in an attempt to ensure that the nation is not caught by surprise by another flu pandemic.
But it's not just data and it's not just flu, according to Gregory Poland, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "There are an endless number of infectious disease threats that, as we often say, are an airplane ride away from us," Poland said. And the CDC is the "only entity" that tracks infectious disease on a national scale, he added. "So now you've got a week, 2 weeks, who knows how long, where there's no one really responsible for watching what's happening nationally." Continue Reading
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