HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said there are 672 confirmed cases in USA territories such as Puerto Rico and the United States, including 64 pregnant women.
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The funding will be used on several fronts to fight the virus, which is transmitted to people through mosquito bites: to control mosquitoes, for the development of diagnostics and vaccines, tracking and mapping the effects of the infection and other prevention efforts.
People who have visited areas where the Zika virus is ongoing should use condoms during sexual intercourse for 28 days after leaving the areas, and should report to airport officials for screening on departure if they suspect themselves of being infected with the Zika virus, the CDC added. Experts agree that there are many unknowns when it comes to the virus and more is being learned every day.
Administration officials said they were making the move because Congress hadn’t yet acted on the administration’s $1.9 billion emergency funding request. Before Congress went on spring recess, the administration requested emergency funding to combat Zika, but Congress went on break without voting.
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”. “And particularly given the uncertainty and the risks, we should not play with fire here”, Director Donovan said. The White House said US officials were in contact with Belgian officials about the explosions at the Brussels airport and subway system. It also wants to preserve money to keep fighting Ebola should it flare up again. Zika is mainly a concern for pregnant women as it has been linked to a serious birth defect of the brain known as microcephaly.
Fitzgerald also encouraged men whose partners are pregnant to practice protected sex for the duration of the pregnancy because Zika can stay in semen for months. Most of these infections were acquired while traveling outside the country.
The Office of Management and Budget devoted a blog post to the problem on Wednesday, saying, “Without the full amount of requested emergency supplemental funding, many activities that need to start now would have to be delayed, or curtailed or stopped, within months”.
On Wednesday, after a two-month-long impasse, the White House announced that $510 million of the $2.7 billion earmarked to battle Ebola would be transferred to the Zika fight. Even though the worst of the outbreak is now over, the public health work is not complete. Health officials say that concentration proves most effective in repelling mosquitoes that could carry the Zika virus.
The dunk kits are a “bacteriological way to control the water and prevent larvae from developing into full-grown mosquitoes”, she said.
“We can not wait for this supplemental”.
Republicans 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.
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“We face two real global health challenges, Ebola and Zika, and we don’t have the option to set one aside to pursue the other”, Burwell said.
