AIBS has signed a stakeholder letter urging House and Senate appropriators to support at least a $20 million increase for the National Wastewater Surveillance System within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Emerging Infectious Diseases program at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) in the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Labor, Health, Human Service and Education appropriations bill, allowing the CDC to detect and track emerging infectious diseases.
The letter reads in part:
“The CDC’s Emerging Infectious Disease program protects Americans from outbreaks by building and sustaining public health laboratory capacity, developing diagnostic tests for emerging infectious diseases and responding to emerging outbreaks. The National Wastewater Surveillance System works in concert with these programs, serving as an early warning system for outbreaks. An increase of $20 million for Emerging Infectious Diseases will allow the CDC to maintain wastewater surveillance in a limited number of states, covering about 20% of the U.S. population.”
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