The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in charge of fighting Zika will run out of money by the end of the month, causing staffing concerns and putting off development of new tests to fight the virus.
The proclamation by the head of the CDC Friday comes as Congress is at odds over funding to fight the virus that is spreading locally in Florida.
“If we are not able to find money somewhere we can’t support staff in the response,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a briefing with reporters Friday in Washington.
If CDC staff is doing work on Zika that is related to their core job requirements then they can be paid by CDC’s general budget, but the CDC has also borrowed people from other parts of the agency. Those people need to be paid via Zika funding.
Frieden couldn’t say how many staff may have to be moved away from the Zika fight if the agency runs out of money.
The director was also concerned about being unable to develop needed diagnostics to find out who has Zika, a particular issue as only one in 5 infected people show symptoms.
He said that the CDC got more than $200 million out of about $585 million reallocated by the White House in April. Most of the allocated funds will be gone by the end of the month.
A top National Institutes of Health official recently said that without emergency funding soon, tests of a promising vaccine would be halted.
The Zika virus primarily spreads via mosquito bites and is linked to the birth defect microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads.
So far there are more than 50 local transmissions of Zika, primarily in the Miami area.
About 17 babies have been born in the continental U.S. with microcephaly since the outbreak has emerged last year.
Frieden said that if the funding standoff continues then he would have to consult with the Department of Health and Human Services, which encompasses the agency, about a plan B.
“Our budget is set by Congress,” he said. “If we reallocate money, we basically are reallocating away from what Congress directed us to do.”
Frieden was also hesitant of a current plan being floated around to add Zika funding to a continuing resolution to fund the government. Congress must reach a deal by Sept. 30 to fund the federal government.
“The risk of a [continuing resolution] is there is a lot happening when they are finalizing a [resolution],” he said. “It is really taking a risk and it may not happen in the end.”
Congress adjourned in July after not reaching an agreement on Zika funding. A $1.1 billion package passed the House but was stalled in the Senate by Democrats upset at provisions that included stripping funding to Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico.
Over the summer, lawmakers have continued to verbally spar over the lack of funding. It continued when Congress resumed activity this week, as another attempt to pass the $1.1 billion package failed in the Senate.
