At the special request of Congressman Mike Honda, HBF President Dr. Timothy Block was invited by U.S Representative David Obey, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, to give oral testimony on March 13 to advocate for more HBV funding in the fiscal year budget 2009. This was a unique opportunity to raise the national profile of hepatitis B!

Dr. Block testified that “the good news is that there have been great advances and there is the real potential of solving the problem of HBV in our lifetime. The worrisome news is that we may be letting down our guard. Lack of sustained support for public health measures and scientific research is threatening to allow the problems to come roaring back.”

He cited the recent Nevada incident, where 40,000 people were exposed to the risk of HBV, HCV and HIV, as a dramatic example of how the nation is facing a major public health challenge that cannot be ignored.

“If we don’t act with urgency, more and more people will suffer,” he said. Specifically, the HBF requested that Chairman Obey and the other Subcommittee members consider an annual increase of $50 million for the CDC Division of Viral Hepatitis and $40 million additional dollars for HBV research at the NIH. Funding increases at this level would make transformational beneficial advances for the prevention, control and treatment of HBV!

Currently, the Administration has cut the CDC’s budget by $412 million and kept the NIH budget flat for FY 2009, which translates to a cut of more than 13% in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2003. Although it is unseemly to compare one disease with another, the HBF’s requests are small in comparison to the $1 billion and $2.9 billion the CDC and NIH spend on HIV, respectively.

Read the complete written testimony of Dr. Timothy Block Here.

Photo: HBF president Dr. Timothy Block testifies before Congressional Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services to advocate for more HBV funding. (March 13, 2008, Washington, DC)