The federal government is close to confirming a link between the Zika virus and a neurological disorder that can temporarily paralyze people for months.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a Senate panel on Wednesday that the CDC needs more studies to confirm the link between Zika and Guillain-Barre Syndrome but is confident studies will show a link.
“I expect that link will be proven, but we don’t have two independent studies determining it,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday.
The CDC already confirmed a link between Zika and the birth defect microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and causes brain damage.
CDC always believed that there was a link between Guillain-Barre and Zika, but needed more studies to prove it.
Guillain-Barre is a disorder that can cause temporary paralysis for weeks and up to several months, Frieden said. Patients rarely die of the disorder, with mortality rates varying between 1 to 18 percent, one study found.
Senators also were concerned about the risk to athletes and tourists going to the Olympics next month in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has been hit hard by the Zika outbreak.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., asked whether it was “morally responsible” to even have the Olympics. She questioned a federal study that is following the athletes during the games to examine potential infections.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked Frieden whether the CDC is providing Olympic athletes with a basic kit or repellent to ward off mosquitoes that spread the Zika virus through biting people.
Frieden responded that the CDC is working with various sports associations that send athletes to the games to provide materials on how athletes can protect themselves from the virus.
Rubio pressed Frieden on whether there was zero risk for athletes or tourists attending the games.
“All travel involves risk,” Frieden said, noting that a tourist can die from a disease or a car accident.
But the games will be held during Brazil’s winter and transmission via mosquitoes will likely be low, he said. The CDC is recommending that pregnant women or women who want to get pregnant not attend the games because of the link to microcephaly.
“We don’t think the risk will outweigh the travel benefits for people except the group for pregnant women,” Frieden said.
Meanwhile, the Senate made no progress on Wednesday on voting for $1.1 billion in additional funding to fight the Zika virus.
Senate Republicans tried but failed to quickly pass the House version of the Zika bill before the Senate leaves for a seven-week summer break Friday.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., asked to bring up the House version and pass it, after which Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would agree only if the Senate considered his preferred version of the bill, one that would rely on deficit spending to pay for the initiative.
But Tillis rejected that request, leaving Reid to reject Tillis’ request to call up the bill at all.
Democrats have blocked the funding package because of riders that target birth control funding to Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico, which has more than 2,000 cases of the virus.
“The bill is not about fighting Zika,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., at the hearing. “Frankly it is about fighting Planned Parenthood.”
Democrats are also upset at Republican efforts to relax pesticide spraying permit requirements in place under the Clean Water Act.
