Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Holds Hearing on FY2004 Budget for National Institutes of Health

FDCH TRANSCRIPTS
Congressional Hearings
Apr. 8, 2003

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Holds Hearing on FY2004 Budget for National Institutes of Health

MURRAY:

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I know you want to go to the second panel. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions about SARS. And as you know, Washington state is a gateway to Asia. And we're very concerned about a lot of what we're hearing. A lot of my constituents travel back and forth there several times a year. And we're concerned about the health impact and the potential economic impact in Washington state. And I know that CDC has issued warnings to many passengers who may have traveled to a particular region or country. But as you know, when you get on a plane, you don't know where it's been before. And I'm just curious if CDC is working with the International Air Carriers and talking to them about how they can reduce the spread of SARS.

GERBERDING:

Yes, we are. First of all, WHO has issued an alert to the departure airports in Asia to screen passengers for any respiratory illnesses that could be consistent with SARS. And I don't know to what extent those countries have been able to implement the advice yet. But there is an effort underway to alert, not just passengers when they arrive here, but passengers before they get on a plane in the first place, which really makes a lot of sense.

We are doing a number of things to assess the health status of airplanes. And we have just completed and are about to distribute a short video for passengers that you'll be able to watch on an international flight that explains what SARS is and what to do. We're working with the airline industry about should they detect somebody in flight, what are the sensible precautions that could be taken until you can get the plane on the ground and alert the quarantine officer in the port of entry. And then finally, should you have a patient with SARS on a plane, what's the appropriate way to disinfect the airplane and so on and so forth. And then that also leads into concerns among the crew of airplanes about their own personal safety and what kind of precautions do they need and what is really the air quality on airplanes.

So these are all questions that we are aggressively pursuing answers to and doing the best we can to build up sensible precautions in the interim.

MURRAY:

And you're working with the international air carriers as well as ...

GERBERDING:

Yes, we are working with international air carriers and the International Association of Flight Attendants. And we are also doing some research looking at cohorts of people who've traveled on planes with someone in retrospect who was recognized to have SARS so that we can understand among the passengers who were potentially exposed does anybody get SARS. If so, where were they in the airplane. What kind of exposure did they have and so forth.

So we're doing that with international partners through WHO. And I think that would really help give us a science base for making additional recommendations.

MURRAY:

OK. And you're following the planes as well as the passengers?

GERBERDING:

Exactly.

MURRAY:

OK. The other question I had has to do with healthcare workers. I have noticed that many of the individuals who've contracted SARS are healthcare workers. What are you doing within our own country to notify emergency room personnel, doctors and others so that they are watching for this?

So we're being as aggressive as we can to put the word out. Take a travel history if you see someone with a respiratory illness.
And if there's any question, isolate the patient until you have additional information to show that it's not necessary.

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MURRAY:

And one last question. Oftentimes us getting information to minority populations is difficult, especially with something like this where we want to make sure the Asian communities are aware. Are we doing different language information pamphlets or information so that we make sure everybody has all the information they need here?

GERBERDING:

Yes, we are. There are several things happening. The travel alert that I'm sorry that you don't have a copy of, but we'll get you one is in several Asian languages. And we'll be adding Spanish to that also. We have just last week established something that we're calling sort of the Asian community team at CDC to pull in our inhouse experts with language skills and cultural experience in various Asian communities to try to help us assess how can we do a better job of targeting our communication, but also being sensitive to the potential for bias or stigma attached with this. The last thing that we want to have happen here is that our Asian communities would suffer unfair prejudice as a consequence of this illness. This is not an illness of Asians. It's an illness of people who have been in a particular part of the world where the virus is spreading.

So we will be expanding on our Web site more information in additional languages. And the WHO Web site is translated into several Asian—at least some Asian languages—to help people get information off the Internet that way. There's a lot more we can do.

MURRAY:

OK. Very good. Thank you very much, Dr. Gerberding.

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MURRAY:

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Dr. Zerhouni, when you were confirmed, you and I talked about pediatric research. And I wanted to ask you today about any progress you've made. I think we've made a lot of progress on reducing gender bias. But I am still deeply concerned that we have not made much progress on making sure that we have progress on making sure we are looking at everything in terms of what happens to children. Can you give us an update on your pediatric research initiative?

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MURRAY:

Dr. Zerhouni, as you well know, there's a lot of misunderstanding about NIH research dollars. There's kind of this assumption out there that NIH only funds politically correct diseases, or that you have to have a high profile celebrity in order to secure any NIH funding. And I know this subcommittee under Senator Specter and Harkin have really resisted any efforts to earmark NIH dollars by disease. We can express our thoughts through report language. But could you explain for us how you establish the priorities for NIH funding and what criteria is used in evaluating research applications?

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MURRAY:

Well, I think it's really important to keep talking about how you set your criteria to the general public because we do have a misperception constantly that if you get a high profile person that you get more funding. And so, it makes it hard enough. And as I said, Senator Specter has done a really good job managing that. But it is very difficult. I think it is important that we base it on science. So I appreciate your comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.