The Senate voted on Tuesday to advance $1.1 billion in emergency financing to combat the Zika virus, setting up a confrontation with House Republicans who have put forward a plan with just $622 million reallocated from other programs.
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Top Republicans such as Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky have successfully pressured the administration to transfer unspent Ebola funds to finance nearly $600 million in anti-Zika efforts such as research on the virus and Zika-related birth defects, response teams to limit Zika’s spread, and assistance to other countries fighting the virus.
“T$3 he Administration’s full request of $1.9 billion is needed to reduce the risk of the Zika virus, particularly in pregnant women”, argued the White House in a statement (PDF), focusing on vector control, developing vaccines and new diagnostics, and conducting research to better understand Zika effects.
“With this risk assessment, we at WHO want to inform and target preparedness work in each European country based on its level of risk”, said Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
The UK is already on alert for people coming home from overseas with the Zika virus.
It has also been linked to a rare disorder of the nervous system, Guillain-Barre syndrome, which causes temporary paralysis.
However, world health leaders are most concerned about the effect the virus will have on pregnant women as the virus has a bad impact on babies developing in the womb.
However, since past year the geographical distribution of Zika virus has steadily widened.
The risk is deemed “high” on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, where one million mainly British, German and Scandinavian tourists visit annually, and the north-eastern coast of the Black Sea where it borders Georgia and Russian Federation.
“There have already been indigenous European outbreaks of two closely-related viruses – Dengue and Chikungunya – that are spread by the same mosquito”.
The UN health agency added that 18 mostly Mediterranean countries would have a moderate likelihood of the virus spreading there, given the presence of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, another potential carrier.
The latest figures show a total of 25 cases diagnosed in United Kingdom travellers since 2015.
However, the organisation said health professionals should be equipped to detect local transmission of Zika virus early and to report the first case of local transmission, as well as complications from infections, within 24 hours of diagnosis.
World Health Organization urges European countries, especially those with high and moderate likelihood of local Zika virus transmission, to follow these recommendations to prevent or rapidly contain a Zika virus disease outbreak.
A new report assesses the risk of a Zika virus outbreak in the European region.
Federal health officials warn that people in the continental US will begin to become infected with locally transmitted Zika as temperatures rise and mosquito activity increases. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., to provide the emergency funding, which would be used for mosquito control, public education and the development of a vaccine.
“Our advice remains precautionary and is based on the fact that our main concern is to avoid infection in pregnancy, in order to avoid risk to the unborn child”. Officials say doctors should ask pregnant women about their travel and certain symptoms, and, if warranted, test them for an infection with the Zika virus.
Symptoms are usually mild and do not last more than a week.
Zika virus festered for decades in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region before globe-hopping to Latin America, where it is causing babies to be born with abnormally small heads.
The UN health agency did not give any travel warnings for Europe as there is now no Zika transmission on the continent, but it said it may issue travel advice to pregnant women if this situation changes.
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The U.S., he warned, needs to start protecting pregnant women from Zika-for economic reasons as well as humane ones.
