The nation's ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat an ever-increasing number of infectious diseases threats will be severely diminished under the President's budget. The Society calls upon Congress to reshape the President's proposal and craft a budget that instead bolsters funding for US and global infectious diseases research and public health activities through the nation's leading federal health agencies.

"As the recent outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has shown, federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are our nation's first line of defense against infectious diseases," said Richard Whitley, MD, FIDSA, IDSA's president. "Unfortunately, the President's proposal does little to move the nation forward in its battle to reduce the terrible toll of many preventable and treatable infectious diseases that claim too many lives around the world."

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