WASHINGTON, D.C-Today, Senators Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health,Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Michael Enzi sent letters to Dr. JulieGerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Secretary MichaelChertoff of the Department of Homeland Security requesting information on interactions withAndrew Speaker, the man infected with drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). ChairmanKennedy and Senator Enzi requests specific times, documents, guidelines, and currentprocedures from both the CDC and DHS for dealing with similar situations.
Chairman Kennedy, along with Senators Brown and Hutchinson, introduced this week theComprehensive TB Elimination Act of 2007, which is designed to fight the reemergence of TBin the United States and to help combat the disease globally. This bipartisan legislation wouldgive the CDC more authority to react to international outbreaks of XDR-TB, and increasesfunds for the Center’s National Program for the Elimination of Tuberculosis. It would alsoincrease tuberculosis research at the CDC and the National Institute of Health.
The letters appear below.
