CDC's Unexplained Deaths Project (UNEX) Suffers Unexplained Cutbacks, page 1

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Topic started on 3-1-2007 @ 02:03 PM by soficrow

The Unexplained Deaths Project (UNEX) was created to "identify outbreaks of new infectious diseases before they reached epidemic proportions." UNEX started in 1995 under the CDC, and grew from the main lab in Atlanta to include four affiliates in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Oregon. However, despite UNEX's success and the ongoing threat from emerging diseases, all four state programs recently lost their funding - and financing approval for 2007 UNEX operations in Atlanta was held up until the very last minute in late December, 2006.

www.nytimes.com

...a boy in Mississippi who died 17 days after developing a fever and headache; a football player at the University of Missouri who died hours after collapsing on the field; a skateboarder who scraped her knee and died a few days later. These are among the mysteries for which Dr. Zaki and his colleagues at the Unexplained Deaths Project, or UNEX, serve as the medical detectives of last resort.

Started in 1995 as an informal collaboration among a handful of C.D.C. scientists determined to identify outbreaks of new infectious diseases before they reached epidemic proportions, UNEX distinguished itself as an interdisciplinary group that brought together the expertise of virologists, bacteriologists, epidemiologists, veterinarians and clinicians. As enthusiasm for the program grew, four affiliates in state health departments opened in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Oregon.

Despite their success and the continuing threat of emerging infections, the state programs recently lost their financing, and enthusiasm for UNEX even within the C.D.C. was dwindling, to the point where its very future appeared to be in doubt until late December, when another year’s financing was finally approved.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The UNEX exists to red flag emerging diseases, and to develop diagnostic criteria and tests - before such diseases go epidemic or in the worst case scenario, pandemic.

Most health experts agree that a pandemic is looming: It's not a question of if a pandemic will happen, but when, and exactly what emerging disease will mutate into a pandemic strain.

So why is this administration neutralizing the scientists responsible for giving us advance warning?

[edit on 3-1-2007 by UM_Gazz]

reply posted on 3-1-2007 @ 03:10 PM by soficrow

"The program's interdisciplinary nature clashes with the trend, at C.D.C. and in science generally, toward specialization," acording to Dr. Zaki.

This so-called 'explanation' is pure horse puckey. All the latest scientific breakthroughs are coming from multi- and inter-disciplinary teams - physicists, programmers and engineers working alongside molecular biologists, virologists, bacteriologists and epidemiologists.

The big trend is away from specialization, and towards interdisciplinary collaboration and multidisciplinary teams. The newest scientific labs and institutions are geared to interdisciplinary collaboration.

Specialization in science is dead. Because it just doesn't work. Really.

A multidisciplinary Purdue research team will lead one of eight national nanomedicine development centers.

The National Institutes of Health awarded the team $7 million over five years to study the use of a nanomotor, a microscopic biological machine, for potential use in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer, AIDS, hepatitis B and influenza.

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The National Science Foundation has awarded a $2 million interdisciplinary grant to a group of researchers led by Dr. Val Tannen, professor of computer and information science, to design a next-generation data integration system for evolutionary biologists working on the Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) initiative.

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The Optical Physics Interdisciplinary Laboratory (OPIL) is an organization within the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, at the University of Michigan. The primary aim of OPIL is to enhance the intellectual environment in LS&A and throughout the University of Michigan, and to promote cross-disciplinary work in fields related by optical physics.

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Students working in (Rensennlauer's) O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design lab (MDL) solve real engineering challenges for some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies. The results? Solid, well-defined solutions for sponsors and an unparalleled multidisciplinary experience for students.

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The Interdisciplinary Laboratory on Interacting Knowledge Systems (ILIKS) is an "European Joint Laboratory" (Laboratoire Européen Associé or LEA), an initiative of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) which will study the theoretical foundations of interaction under a strongly interdisciplinary approach, by developing rigorous models grounded on Cognitive Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, Economy, as well as Logics and Computer Science.

Interesting. "The program's interdisciplinary nature clashes with the trend at C.D.C.."

Uh huh.

That would be the trend of giving private investors Intellectual Property Rights for research paid for with tax payers money, right? And not sharing it around, right?