- Home
- Advocacy
- Latest News and Practice Data
- The CAP, Others Urge Congress to Support CDC’s Advanced Molecular Detection Program
Along with 46 other medical and health organizations, the CAP urged Congress to support funding for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Advanced Molecular Detection program. The group wants Congress to approve $60 million in base funding for the CDC’s Advanced Molecular Detection program in the fiscal year 2022. The base funding level of $30 million has been flat since 2014. The CAP advocates for programs that advance and study pathogen genomics in public health.
In two April 28 letters to both House and Senate appropriation leaders, the group asked for funding for the Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) program, which “uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) to bring the concept of precision medicine to bear for ‘precision public health.’” The groups emphasized how AMD “played a critical role in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, enabling the United States to sequence SARS-CoV-2 within one week of its detection last year.”
The additional funding would help support initiatives in the following areas:
- Innovation in the field of public health. The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2016 Zika outbreak exemplified how the CDC and state and local public health laboratories now use AMD technologies on virtually the entire spectrum of emerging infectious diseases.
- Embedding AMD fully in state and local health departments. State and local public health departments need the infrastructure to implement AMD programs that are capable of responding to emerging threats or changing priorities.
- Expanded collaboration between public health and academic research institutions. Increased investment towards these collaborations would further the US as a leader in this area and build on existing consortia like SPHERES that have demonstrated tremendous value.
The groups reiterated that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to grow and sustain the AMD research base budget.