WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- The United States should do more to battle the emerging threat of infectious diseases, both domestically and abroad, because rapid illness outbreaks can have global ramifications, a panel of experts concluded in a report released Tuesday.
The report was issued as health authorities around the world continue to investigate a mysterious respiratory illness that first appeared in Asia and seems to have spread to several countries around the globe, including America, Australia, Germany and England.
"We know that we're going to face very serious infectious disease challenges in the future," including the threat of biological weapons, said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, co-chair of the committee that compiled the report and vice president for biological programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington.
"We cannot lose any more time in addressing these concerns," Hamburg said. The committee, which was convened by the Institute of Medicine, included scientists and physicians from universities and drug companies.
Hamburg said although public health authorities probably are aware of the issues raised in the report, the real message is there is an urgent need to put programs in place to deal with infectious diseases. The diseases can include the emergence of new illnesses as well as re-emergences of previously known conditions that could emerge in a different form or become resistant to currently available medications, she said.
"It's not that the message is new but the urgency is only increasing," Hamburg said.
The panel recommended U.S. health agencies work with the World Health Organization and other international agencies to develop surveillance systems to monitor and detect microbial threats around the world, particularly in developing nations.
"We must do it from the perspective of a global approach," Hamburg said. The ongoing outbreak of the respiratory illness shows "national borders offer little impediment (and) one nation's problems can soon become every nation's problem," she said.
"We must recognize this is an important aspect of strengthening our national security," she added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which co-sponsored the report and to which most of the recommendations were directed, said it planned to implement the suggestions made by the panel.
"We see the report as a call to action," Dr. James Hughes, director of CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, said during a separate teleconference. "We will be moving forward towards developing an updated CDC infectious disease strategy based on the recommendations in this report," he said.
Hughes noted after Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax-laced mailings that followed, the Bush administration doled out funds aimed at improving the U.S. public health infrastructure.
"We have made some progress but at the same time this report emphasizes the fact that much work remains to be done," Hughes said.
Referring to the respiratory illness outbreak, he said: "This current ongoing experience drives home in spades the importance of the recommendations made in this report."
In addition to the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense should become involved in efforts to improve global surveillance and response to infectious diseases, the report recommended.
