Public health officials said Monday they’ve learned a lot more about Zika since the White House asked Congress for $1.9 billion to combat the mosquito-borne virus, and are increasingly concerned about its potential impact on the United States.
Advertisement
“Everything we see is bad”, Dr. Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told NBC News.
Schuchat said that the Zika virus, that is mainly spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species of mosquito, is linked to a broader set of complications in pregnancy, not just microcephaly but also premature birth, eye problems and some other conditions. Here in the United States, President Obama is pushing for an additional $1.9 billion to combat the disease internationally but the request has stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress. The administration has announced it is shifting $589 million in funds left over from the Ebola crisis to combat Zika.
With more funding and the worldwide medical community working to fight the deadly Zika virus, the world is hopeful that a treatment for the deadly virus will be discovered soon.
Dr. Bruce Rodgers said, “The mosquito that is causing this has been found much farther north than we anticipated”.
Congress is voting on a bill aimed at finding a cure for the Zika virus.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the newest warning “hopefully serves as motivation for members of Congress to pay attention to this important topic”.
Officials from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used strong language Monday when discussing the dangers of a Zika virus outbreak in America.
As Brazil prepares to host the Olympic games in August, the CDC has recommended that pregnant women avoid traveling to the country.
“And we really do need to learn a lot more, because this is a very unusual virus”. Out of the total cases, 32 were pregnant women, while seven of them acquired the virus through sexual activity.
Additionally, scientists at the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) and at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) say that the ZIKA virus can also produce harmful effects in human neural stem cells, neurospheres and brain organoids, which are lab-grown “mini-brains”.
Advertisement
The CDC is now focusing on the explosive number of cases expected in Puerto Rico. “But we do need to do something in the foreseeable future, and I would think before the end of the fiscal year”, perhaps as an attachment to a must-pass stopgap funding bill that’s required to prevent a government shutdown in October.
