IOM review to eye nation’s TB programs
Report could bring TB into sharper focus
The Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has commissioned a report from the Institute of Medicine on TB-related issues and programs in the United States.
The Institute of Medicine, a component of the National Academy of Science, was chartered in 1970 to examine policy matters related to public health. It is expected that the report will be ready for release in about a year, and will coincide with World TB Day, March 24, 2000.
The intent behind asking the IOM to prepare a report is straightforward, says Larry Geiter, MPH, PhD, a consultant with Sequela Research Foundation in Rockville, MD, and the staff officer for the IOM responsible for the study. "It’s a way to obtain an independent, scientific review of TB programs and policies in the U.S.," he says.
Attracting more funding
At the same time, publication of an IOM report also has been known to focus legislators’ attention, and to attract more funding, he concedes. "The risk in commissioning [such a report] is that TB could be deemed not to be of much importance — though I doubt that would happen," Geiter says.
"On the other hand, it could also have the impact of mobilizing forces and focusing attention on TB," he adds.
In late 1996, the IOM released a groundbreaking report on sexually transmitted diseases. That study, The Hidden Epidemic: Confront ing Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Thomas Eng and William Butler, eds; the Committee on Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases of the Institute of Medicine; 1996), called for "a bold national initiative to reduce the enormous health burden of STDs." It noted that five of 10 of the most common diseases reported to the CDC were STDs, but that "no effective national system exists to combat them, and called for increased funding from the private and public sectors."
IOM to issue recommendations
The IOM study commissioned by the DTBE is expected to review and issue recommendations on issues including regional variations in the United States concerning TB morbidity, research needs; the impact of foreign-born people on morbidity rates; multidrug-resistant TB; America’s role in international TB control; and the campaign to eliminate TB in the United States.
A 14-member committee will conduct the study. Membership is designed so that the committee is divided into roughly equal parts, including those with much, some, and no expertise in TB-related issues, says Geiter.
The committee held its initial meeting March 9. It will hold a workshop, with presentation from invited speakers, in Washington, DC, June 7-8. It is also scheduled to meet in closed sessions for three days in August in Woods Hole, MS; for two days in November in Irvine, CA; and during February 2000 in Washington, DC.
The report review process will take place in February and March 2000; and the targeted release date is March 24, 2000.
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