A 27-year-old man who returned to Taiwan from St.Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean on Thursday morning was confirmed to have been infected with the Zika virus, Taiwan’s center for disease control said Friday.
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This brings the total locally transmitted cases to 28.
The infection is suspected of leading to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains. It also can also be spread by sex, prompting public health officials to advise that people who have been infected refrain from unprotected sex for several months. “This emergency declaration allows us to provide additional support to the Puerto Rican government and reminds us of the importance of pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and their partners taking additional steps to protect themselves and their families from Zika”.
Zika is spread by mosquitos.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said she will transfer $34 million from her agency to the National Institutes of Health and will transfer another $47 million to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the newspaper reported.
The last time HHS declared such an emergency was in 2012 in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which slammed into the New Jersey shore and flooded parts of New York City.
As is the case with MI, there have been no cases of Zika virus transmitted through mosquitoes in Ohio.
“The failure to pass a Zika emergency supplemental (appropriation) has forced the administration to choose between delaying critical vaccine development work and raiding other worthy government programs to avoid these delays”, Burwell said in a letter to Congress.
HHS made the declaration at the request of Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla. Officials also say 30 people have been diagnosed with a temporary paralysis condition known as Guillain-Barre that has been linked to Zika.
“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 United States territory in late April to evaluate its response to the spread of the virus.
He said that the health department was looking at alternatives to control the rising infections.
Zika was first detected previous year in Brazil, where it has taken its heaviest toll so far, and has spread rapidly through Latin America and the Caribbean.
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“Zika poses a hidden threat to future generations of Puerto Ricans, and I feel the responsibility to do everything in my power to fight the spread of it, ” he said.
