This week, public health officials across the country are celebrating National Public Health Week and the power of prevention, advocating for healthy and fair policies, sharing strategies for successful partnerships and championing the role of a strong public health system. In this light, it is a very appropriate time to highlight the fact Wisconsin does not have a dedicated and stable funding source to protect the public from communicable and infectious diseases.
With ever-increasing threats of new and exotic diseases, as well as the re-emergence of known threats, it is important for us to prevent versus react to these threats in the 21st century. Together, the Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA) and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards (WALHDAB) represent over 1,200 public health professionals in communities across Wisconsin, striving to prevent, promote, and protect the citizens of the state from the threat posed by communicable disease.
It should be a top priority to control and prevent these threats. The reality in our world today is that serious diseases are just a plane ride away. And it’s not just rare or new diseases like Zika, Ebola, and Elizabethkingia. Highly communicable illnesses, such as measles, tuberculosis, Hepatitis C and pertussis (whooping cough) have returned with a vengeance. Each time, public health must be ready to respond. These communicable diseases must be investigated, and the response coordinated and swift.
Today, that response is at risk. According to the Trust for America’s Health, Wisconsin ranks 41st in the nation in funding for public health – investing only $15.10 per capita compared to the national median of $39.32 per capita. That’s unfortunate and it’s dangerous too.
Even more alarming, Wisconsin has no dedicated, stable funding source for communicable disease control and prevention even though the state tasks local health departments with over 20 unfunded mandates for disease surveillance, investigation, prevention and control.
Despite limited resources, local public health departments carry out work in our communities every day, including providing surveillance and follow up for more than 70 communicable diseases. Often, this work is invisible, but the results are not.
Capacity at the local level truly matters and it is important for the Wisconsin State Legislature to invest in prevention.
Adding only $5 million in new funding over the upcoming two-year budget cycle – a fraction of the total $76 billion biennial budget that amounts to less than $1 per capita – will allow local health departments statewide to improve disease surveillance, provide staff training, and develop public awareness plans. It will also move Wisconsin closer to the national norm for state investments in public health.
From the largest city to the smallest, all across the state, we are making sure lawmakers hear us. It is time to invest in prevention. Our local health departments need more resources to fight communicable diseases. Our residents deserve it and Wisconsin’s health depends on it.
