Lab scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been analyzing blood samples for weeks to determine how dozens of patients across six states had become infected with viral hepatitis, a disease that can cause serious liver damage.
But their DNA detective work stopped abruptly last week. Widespread layoffs across federal health agencies earlier this month had resulted in the firing of all 27 lab scientists who worked in the only U.S. facility that could perform the sophisticated genetic sequencing needed to investigate hepatitis outbreaks, lab experts said.
Another lab, the only one in the United States capable of testing for and tracking antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, often called “super gonorrhea,” was also recently effectively shut down.
The lab firings were part of the 2,400 staff laid off from the CDC. While officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have said the job reductions are aimed at refocusing the agency “on emerging and infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, preparedness and response,” lab experts say the reductions contradict that goal.
“CDC cannot focus on infectious disease prevention and response without all CDC laboratories being intact and fully supported,” wrote Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local public health labs across the U.S.
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The group has written a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking for the personnel to be reinstated. “Their loss eliminated critical national testing services that do not exist anywhere else within the HHS agencies,” the letter said.
“In essence, we’re flying blind,” Becker said in an interview.
An HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The increase in hepatitis C infections has been “stupendous in the past 20 to 25 years,” said Judith Feinberg, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at West Virginia University.
“The CDC lab was capable of showing the genetic linkage between isolates of virus … and that helps you control it from public health policy. It helps you understand how and where disease is spreading, how the virus is evolving,” Feinberg said.
Though hepatitis can be caused by heavy alcohol use and some medications, it can also be sparked by a virus that causes liver inflammation, jaundice, fever and other symptoms. Tens of thousands of new cases of viral hepatitis occur every year in the U.S., according to the CDC. Viral hepatitis kills thousands of Americans every year and is a leading cause of liver cancer. The three most common viruses that cause hepatitis are hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and depending on the type can be spread through close contact, consuming contaminated food, sharing needles or contact with infected blood.
But their DNA detective work stopped abruptly last week. Widespread layoffs across federal health agencies earlier this month had resulted in the firing of all 27 lab scientists who worked in the only U.S. facility that could perform the sophisticated genetic sequencing needed to investigate hepatitis outbreaks, lab experts said.
Another lab, the only one in the United States capable of testing for and tracking antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, often called “super gonorrhea,” was also recently effectively shut down.
The lab firings were part of the 2,400 staff laid off from the CDC. While officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have said the job reductions are aimed at refocusing the agency “on emerging and infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, preparedness and response,” lab experts say the reductions contradict that goal.
“CDC cannot focus on infectious disease prevention and response without all CDC laboratories being intact and fully supported,” wrote Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local public health labs across the U.S.
🧘
Follow Health & wellness
The group has written a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking for the personnel to be reinstated. “Their loss eliminated critical national testing services that do not exist anywhere else within the HHS agencies,” the letter said.
“In essence, we’re flying blind,” Becker said in an interview.
An HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The increase in hepatitis C infections has been “stupendous in the past 20 to 25 years,” said Judith Feinberg, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at West Virginia University.
“The CDC lab was capable of showing the genetic linkage between isolates of virus … and that helps you control it from public health policy. It helps you understand how and where disease is spreading, how the virus is evolving,” Feinberg said.
Though hepatitis can be caused by heavy alcohol use and some medications, it can also be sparked by a virus that causes liver inflammation, jaundice, fever and other symptoms. Tens of thousands of new cases of viral hepatitis occur every year in the U.S., according to the CDC. Viral hepatitis kills thousands of Americans every year and is a leading cause of liver cancer. The three most common viruses that cause hepatitis are hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and depending on the type can be spread through close contact, consuming contaminated food, sharing needles or contact with infected blood.
