On Monday, Fauci and Dr. Anne Schuchat, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a White House briefing that researchers have linked Zika to stillbirths, miscarriages and other complications – and not just in the first trimester, as previously thought, but throughout pregnancy.
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Key US health officials have voiced their concern about the danger that the Zika virus poses to the US, saying the situation is “scarier than thought” and calling on the Congress to allow $1.9 billion to fight the threat.
Zika virus can be spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus and has been linked to a serious birth defect of the brain called microcephaly in babies of mothers who had Zika virus while pregnant.
A health alert has been sounded by the health authorities on fear of an outbreak in the Zika virus cases in U.S. The Obama organization campaigned Congress for $1.9 billion to battle the mosquito-borne infection.
However, Fauci believes this money is a “temporary stopgap” and it’s “not enough for us to get the job done”. They can’t say for sure how widespread the virus will be in the United States.
Dr Schuchat told reporters: “Most of what we’ve learned is not reassuring”.
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.
“When the president asked for $1.9 billion, we needed $1.9 billion”, he said. Babies have been born with microcephaly in Brazil which is a birth defect where a baby has an abnormally small head and brain.
Most people with the Zika virus are asymptomatic, and the mild end of the symptoms spectrum includes fever, rash, muscle pain and headaches, MarketWatch reported in January. “We certainly have aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Houston, and we’re encouraging people to reduce the breeding opportunities around their homes and to protect themselves”, says Barton.
White House officials reveal the newest warning “hopefully serves as motivation for members of Congress to pay attention to this important topic”.
Researchers are working on drugs and a vaccine to prevent Zika but the work remains in the preliminary stages with no specific preventative or cure in sight.
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“If we don’t get the money that the President has asked for, we are not going to be able to take it to the point where we have actually accomplished what we need to do”. There have been confirmed cases of Zika in California, the southern portion of the USA and CT, with Georgia listing 11 confirmed cases.
