The White House submitted that $1.9 billion request to Congress in February of this year.
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On the sidelines of an April 1 Zika summit to help state and local public health officials build or fine-tune their Zika action plans, health officials pleaded with Congress to approve the funds, warning that the funding gap and a raid of Ebola funds would undermine the response to both threats.
Most of the money the White House is redirecting will come from the nearly $3 billion set aside to fight Ebola.
More than 60% of the money is to be spent domestically, and the rest on aid to other countries for programs including educational campaigns, maternal and child health efforts, and mosquito management.
There is not a vaccine to prevent Zika and in cases where there is no vaccine the next best defense is knowledge to prevent the virus, Ortez said. “Similarly, starting mosquito surveillance and control activities now, prior to the summer months which are peak season for mosquitoes, and prior to the start of the rainy season in Central America and the Caribbean, is prudent”. The projects will be conducted across its agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.
White House budget director Shaun Donovan said the move was only a temporary fix, however.
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, has committed to replenishing the funds, Donovan said. The government was compelled to take the step because without it several key initiatives “would have to be delayed or curtailed or stopped within months”, he added.
John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said he fears a Zika outbreak in his home state of Texas, but said he hopes “reason would prevail and we’d use the money that’s already been appropriated and then we’d talk about what additional money would be needed, perhaps for either Ebola or Zika”. In a conference call with reporters, the officials said they would reprogram $510 million in Ebola funds and $79 million in other resources to prepare for and respond to Zika. “This is not enough to support a Zika response and can only temporarily address what’s needed until Congress acts on our request”, Donovan said. Because researchers now believe the virus remains in blood longer than the 10 days previously thought, HHS has arranged for “clean blood” to be sent to the island for the duration of the outbreak, said Mathews Burwell.
The two unrelated cases – a 64 year-old woman from the beach resort of Nha Trang and a 33-year old from Ho Chi Minh City tested positive last week. So far, the USA cases appear to have been contracted in other countries where the virus has been circulating. There are more than 660 confirmed cases in U.S. states and territories, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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The virus has also been linked to the birth defect microcephaly, particularly in Brazil, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency.
