Federal travel budget policy affecting global health

Writing in the Diplomatic Courier Blog, Jaclyn Schiff, communications director for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, examines how "an Obama administration effort to curb reckless spending on events" is "making it harder for American researchers to collaborate effectively with their counterparts in other countries." She says the policy, issued through a September 2011 memo asking all departments to cut travel spending by 30 percent, prevented Stephen Thomas, director of Walter Reed's Viral Diseases Branch, from traveling to Atlanta for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's annual conference to present his research on dengue vaccine efficiency (11/23).