WASHINGTON-The White House will shift about $500 million designated for fighting Ebola to combating the Zika virus, saying the step is necessary because Congress hasn’t acted on the administration’s request for emergency funding to tackle the mosquito-borne disease.
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Ebola is also still a threat in countries like Guinea and Liberia, and because the administration is withdrawing money from that account, the White House is calling on Congress to not only approve the full Zika request, but to replenish the Ebola funds.
“I want to be very clear that our $1.9 billion request remains our $1.9 billion request”, Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan said.
Republicans on Capitol Hill had suggested the administration consider reshuffling existing funds and have said they are open to paying the money back in future legislation if it’s needed for Ebola or some other purposes.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the transferred money will support state-level mosquito-control efforts and Zika surveillance.
“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”, Burwell said. The The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, announced new guidance for doctors whose pregnant patients may have traveled to regions with a tropical illness linked to birth defects.
None of the cases on the US mainland have been locally acquired, the organization said.
None of those cases involved pregnant women, but the state public health department has tested 78 pregnant women who thought they had been exposed to the virus through travel, said Nancy Nydam, spokesperson for the department.
Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who oversees State Department funding, said the administration told him the re-programmed $589 million “ought to cover it”.
There’s urgency to battle the Zika virus as summer weather leads to mosquito season and a potential broader spread of the virus. Meetings on the subject in the House Appropriations Committee were never scheduled as members of Congress said they wanted to see the Ebola money spent first and called for more details on the proposed Zika spending. Funding from Congress is urgently needed. Travelers recently returning from countries with ongoing Zika transmission should take special precautions to avoid mosquito bites in MS to avoid transmitting the virus to local mosquitoes. Several babies that miscarried or were aborted because of severe brain defects also have been shown to have Zika in their bodies.
“We should not play with fire here”, Donovan continued, scoring conservative House members for their refusal to play along with the administration’s initiatives.
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“We can not wait. There are activities that we can not start now, there are activities in the coming months that we may need to stop doing”. Updates concerning the virus are sent to local primary care providers, so obstetricians and doctors can talk to pregnant women or women who are trying to become pregnant, about the dangers of Zika.
