The Obama administration on Friday declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico due to the rapid and widespread transmission of the Zika virus, saying it poses a “significant threat” to the health of pregnant women who may be infected and their children. More than 1,000 pregnant women in Puerto Rico have been infected.
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“This administration is committed to meeting the Zika outbreak in Puerto Rico with the necessary urgency”, said department secretary Sylvia Burwell, who travelled to the USA territory in late April to evaluate its response to the spread of the virus.
The declaration will give Puerto Rico more money to fight the outbreak. It has also been linked to a temporary paralysis condition known as Guillain-Barre.
The emergency was declared one day after the United States surgeon general visited Puerto Rico and said he expected 25% of Puerto Rico’s almost 3.5 million people would be infected with Zika by the end of the year.
The declaration will allow HHS to provide added support to the government of Puerto Rico to address the outbreak on the island.
Padilla said he was grateful for the assistance. “This is why we are actively looking for alternatives to prevent the number of infections from increasing”. It allows Puerto Rico to apply for funding to hire and train unemployed workers to assist in mosquito control efforts, as well as for outreach and education efforts. Zika can also be transmitted through sex.
Zika is known to cause microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects in newborns and has been associated with other adverse pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage, stillbirth and serious neurological problems.
In this February 24, 2016 file photo, workers from the Puerto Rico Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review Zika-related data collected by the island’s health department and the CDC in San Juan.
In addition to Zika, Puerto Rico is grappling with a $70 billion debt. The administration said on Thursday it had shifted US$81 million in funds from other projects to continue work on developing vaccines to fight Zika in the absence of any funding from USA lawmakers. Money for Zika vaccine trials was set to run out at the end of the month. More than 1,900 of those cases were in the last week alone.
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US officials can urge pregnant women to consider postponing their travel to countries located in Central America and South America.
