Zika has been seen in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands for years, but has recently been reported in approximately 30 countries, mostly in the Caribbean, Central, and South America.
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So far in 2016 the mosquito-borne Zika virus has affected eight people across the commonwealth.
Pregnant women and their fetuses are at greatest risk from Zika because of recent findings establishing a link in Brazil between an outbreak of Zika and a concurrent spike in microcephaly, a birth defect in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and an underdeveloped brain. “First, we’ve learned that sexual transmission of the virus is, actually, more common than was initially believed”.
The White House isn’t waiting for Congress to act on an emergency $1.9 billion funding request to fight the Zika virus.
“The redirected funds are not enough to support a comprehensive Zika response and can only temporarily address what is needed until Congress acts on the Administration’s emergency supplemental request”, Donovan said.
Mr. Donovan said $510 million of the $589 million it is shifting to the Zika fight comes from the Ebola pool, while the rest will be extracted from accounts maintained by the Health and Human Services Department. The majority of the funding will go to the CDC, which focuses on research and development of anti-Zika vaccines and treating those infected. “Today, we reiterate our call on the Congress to take immediate action to provide the full requested amount”.
To keep the mosquito population under control this season, and to hopefully lessen the chances of the Zika virus, Jefferson County Storm Water Management is giving away free mosquito dunk kits. A Washington Post article titled, “As Mosquito Season Arrives, is the U.S. Ready for Zika?” said more targeted spraying around homes is a better defense against these mosquitoes.
Tran also said Vietnam is raising its virus alert system to level 2, which indicates there have been confirmed cases but has not yet issued travel restrictions. While it seems unlikely that Congress will approve the supplemental request, now that the White House has made the transfer of Ebola funds, the administration said the Ebola money would still need to be replaced because Ebola hasn’t been vanquished and remains a threat.
“House Republicans have stated all along that we ought to save taxpayer dollars by using unspent Ebola money for Zika efforts”, Strong said in an email.
The rest of the money will go toward fighting the virus overseas. Calls to redirect the money have been controversial.
Health officials sought to play down any panic, but said programs that start now may have to be delayed or stopped without emergency funding.
Conducting mosquito surveillance and deploying mosquito control tools, such as outdoor and indoor residual spraying, source reduction and larviciding, and widespread space spraying.
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“We face two real global health challenges, and we don’t have the option to set one aside in the name of the other”, she said. Pressure mounted earlier this year to use Ebola funds as news reports on the spread of Zika captured public attention and the Ebola outbreak entered its final stages.
