Obama to CDC Efforts in Antimicrobial Resistance: Drop Dead [Mike the Mad Biologist]

(from here)

By way of Maryn McKenna, we find that the Obama Administration has decided to massively cut the funding for the CDC’s antimicrobial resistance and vaccination efforts. I thought this was the kind of anti-science bullshit that the Bush Administration did. From the IDSA (pdf):

Under CDC’s proposed budget, the agency’s already severely strapped Antimicrobial Resistance budget would be cut dramatically by $8.6 million–roughly 50 percent. This vital program is necessary to help combat the rising crisis of drug resistance, a critical medical problem that the agency deems “one of the world’s most pressing public health problems.” Yet the President’s FY 2011 budget would allow CDC to target only 20 state/local health departments and health care systems to be funded for surveillance, prevention, and control of antimicrobial resistance, down from 48 this past year. It would also eliminate all grants to states for the successful Get Smart in the Community program to combat improper uses of antibiotics.

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