Breaking News: Appropriations bill maintains TB, Global AIDS funding
The 2013 health funding bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee brings good news for tuberculosis research advocates, keeping funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of TB Elimination at its current $140.298 million. The Obama administration had recommended a $4.6 million cut. While about 80 percent of the CDC’s TB division funding goes to domestic programs, an estimated $14 million to $16 million goes to the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium, which works in the United States and globally to test tuberculosis treatments, including shorter term regimens and answers to multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains of infection.
The committee bill also maintains funding for the CDC’s Global AIDS Program at its current funding level of $117.118 million. The program works with country-based AIDS responses internationally to support treatment and prevention infrastructures.
The realities of health funding, however, may not be known until after the election, as the corresponding House subcommittee has yet to schedule a hearing on its bill.
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