Letter: System needed to track diseases

Friday, Jan. 4, 2002 | 9:05 a.m.

The report of the latest case of leukemia in Fallon underlines the importance of a congressional appropriation to establish state pilot programs to track and investigate chronic diseases.

Our public health system is currently lacking in its ability to track the occurrence of chronic diseases and potential links to environmental factors. Public health officials have not been given basic tools and resources they need if they are to get to the bottom of disease clusters like Fallon's.

Sen. Harry Reid's successful efforts to get initial funding for a nationwide health tracking network will change that. As reported last week, Congress has set aside $17.5 million in funding for state pilot programs to track chronic disease. Those programs are expected to create the foundation for a nationwide system. In the meantime, clusters like that of childhood leukemia in Fallon will continue to occur, and our public health system will be hard-pressed to meet the public's demands for answers.

We need nationwide tracking and monitoring of cancer and other chronic diseases like birth defects and asthma to better understand where these diseases occur and what links they may have to environmental factors.

Given the resources they need, public health officials will be better able to do their job of preventing disease in our communities.

AMY GOFFE Washington, D.C.

Editor's note: The writer is deputy director of Health-Track, an advocacy group that has pushed for a national database of all diseases.