Increasingly concerned about the spread of the Zika virus, the Obama administration said Wednesday it is transferring almost $600 million from existing disease prevention programs in order to fight the mosquito-borne virus.
The White House said the emergency transfer is necessary because Congress has continued to deny the administration's $1.9 billion request, money that would be used to stop Zika from gaining a foothold in the United States.
The transfer, including $510 million previously earmarked for ongoing Ebola efforts, will be used to develop a Zika vaccine and improved diagnostic tests. Some of the money also will go toward assisting states as they prepare for the possible arrival of the mosquito-borne disease as early as late spring. The virus is strongly linked to devastating birth defects.
The White House made the initial $1.9 billion request in February, but Congress refused. Instead, lawmakers said the administration should use funds left over from the fight against Ebola.
Even with the transfer the administration reiterated its demand for the $1.9 billion.
“The situation continues to grow more critical,” Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a press conference Wednesday. “We must scale up right now.”
An additional $79 million from other prevention programs is also being redirected toward Zika, White House officials said. 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.
“These efforts can’t be stopped or shortchanged,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “We risk undermining our ability to respond.”
Georgia saw its first case of Zika in February, and in just over two months the number of travel-related cases in the state has risen to 11. None of those cases involved pregnant women, but the state public health department has tested 78 pregnant women who thought they had been exposed to the virus through travel, said Nancy Nydam, spokesperson for the department. Two of those 78 thought they had been exposed to Zika by a sexual partner who had recently traveled to an area currently experiencing a Zika outbreak. The disease can be sexually transmitted.
The number of Zika cases in the U.S. and its territories stands at 672, including 64 pregnant women. The disease is strongly linked to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes severe, long-term health care issues for babies born with it.
Scientists still don’t know the stage of pregnancy during which Zika poses the greatest threat to a fetus. Early research indicates there are health consequences at any point before delivery. Zika has also been linked to miscarriages.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, has been the epicenter of the outbreak affecting the United States thus far, with 349 cases, all acquired from mosquitoes. 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 National Institutes of Health is slated to start testing Zika vaccines in September, but a successful vaccine could be years away, officials said.
Additional money from Congress would also go toward development of faster diagnostic tests for Zika. The current tests can take a week or more to produce a result. As more U.S. travelers visit popular vacation spots in the Americas where Zika is present, more of those travelers are asking their doctors for Zika tests upon their return, Mathews Burwell said.
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