The funds were originally earmarked to fight the Ebola virus, but with Ebola mostly eradicated and Zika spreading quickly throughout North America, government officials have chose to use these funds toward fighting the latter tropical virus.
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The funding is needed for detection, prevention and response efforts, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday.
More than 312 cases have been reported in 41 states, all of them linked to travel outside the U.S. But with mosquito season here, that could change – and soon.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated a report last week illustrating on US maps that the two mosquitoes with the potential to transmit the Zika virus, as well as other viruses such as dengue and chikungunya, could inhabit areas this summer that include parts of all but ten states in the United States.
Researchers believe there may be a link between Zika and Microcephaly which is a debilitating neurological birth defect in which a baby’s head is too small as well as other serious complications.
The Zika threat has evolved rapidly since Obama’s original request, Donovan said, with sexual transmission of the virus occurring more commonly than thought, the severe impact on fetal brain development becoming clearer, and the projected geographical range of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes-which transmit the virus-exceeding earlier estimates.
“But Congress has yet to act”, Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a news conference.
Funding the full emergency request would also replace the funding that would have gone towards Ebola, which is still necessary, he said.
The dunk kits are a “bacteriological way to control the water and prevent larvae from developing into full-grown mosquitoes”, she said.
But that alone is “insufficient” to fully combat Zika, Earnest said, noting that it is a “temporary fix” until Congress acts on the looming health crisis.
There is no specific medicine or vaccine for Zika virus, which causes symptoms such as fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes lasting from a week to 10 days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We face two real global health challenges – Ebola and Zika – and we don’t have an option to set one aside in the name of the other”, says Burwell. Lack of funds could result in having to halt these efforts within months, which would increase the risk of more Americans contracting the Zika virus.
“The problem then is if you get the virus and become pregnant we don’t know how long for sure it stays in the blood or semen,”said Lyskowski”.
The White House announced it will be redirecting the remaining funding approved to fight Ebola toward combating the Zika virus.
“These repurposed funds are not enough to support a comprehensive Zika response and can only temporarily address what it needed”, Donovan said.
Texas, Florida and Hawaii are the states most at risk for local transmission of Zika, Burwell said.
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Brazil said it has confirmed 944 cases of microcephaly, and considers majority to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.
