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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 1, 2008
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak

Senate Passes Comprehensive TB Elimination Act
Sen. Hutchison Helps Secure $300 Million for TB Research


WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Texas’ senior senator, today announced Senate passage of S. 1551, the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act, which she introduced and was an original cosponsor. The legislation expands tuberculosis (TB) research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“In 2006, there were over 9 million new cases of TB globally and 1.7 million people died from the disease,” said Sen. Hutchison. “Out of the TB cases reported nationally in 2006, Texas had the second highest number. Furthermore, the rate of TB in our state’s border communities is almost double compared to the state and national averages. The funding in this bill will help expand and intensify efforts at the CDC and NIH to prevent, detect, and treat TB, with an emphasis on groups with disproportionately high infection rates.”

Additionally, the bill will enhance the CDC’s authority to respond to international outbreaks of multidrug-resistant TB and will increase funding for the Center’s National Program for the Elimination of Tuberculosis.

The legislation also requires the inclusion of a representative from the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission in the newly created Advisory Council for Elimination of Tuberculosis. Sen. Hutchison assisted in the creation of the Commission in El Paso.



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