State and local health departments will be the first line of defense if the Zika virus breaks out in the U.S., but funding for such programs has steadily declined.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gathered state and local health officials from across the country for a summit to help develop a plan to fight the Zika virus, which has spread to more than 50 countries and territories.
The virus primarily spreads through mosquito bites and causes a mild illness. The CDC is increasingly worried, however, that the virus also causes birth defects and a rare neurological disease.
So far the virus hasn’t spread via mosquito bites, but the CDC wants localities to be ready since the summer months bring out the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads Zika.
Local governments aren’t new to fighting mosquito-borne viruses, especially with prior outbreaks of West Nile virus. However, the virus comes as some pest control programs are still reeling from funding declines due to the economic slowdown.
“I think the general opinion is that [pest] control, like other local services, has basically suffered due to the fiscal constraints local governments had to deal with,” said Jim Blumenstock, chief program officer for health security for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
“At the time you have to make decisions with the resources that you have,” Blumenstock told the Washington Examiner.
A 2014 report from another nonprofit detailed the funding and staffing problems for mosquito control programs at health departments.
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists examined the capacity of many health departments to combat West Nile, which is also spread through mosquito bites.
The report examined the response to the virus in 48 states from 2004 to 2012. The report, culled from surveys of local health officials, found that staff working on West Nile surveillance in states dropped by 41 percent during that period.
Most of the states surveyed reported that help is needed to control such mosquito-borne viruses. States, for instance, need a 58-percent increase over 2012 staffing levels.
States and localities also have received less funding from the CDC for West Nile surveillance. In 2002, the federal government doled out about $35 million in funding to states, but that figure declined to about $9 million in 2012, the report said.
Local officials at the CDC summit said they are being forced to consider how to deal with Zika and the other threats that may emerge.
“A lot of our daily work has now been moved to the side and shifted to other activities,” said Umair Shah, executive director of Public Health and Environmental Services for Harris County, Texas, which encompasses Houston.
For instance, Gulf states such as Texas and Florida are highly susceptible to Zika this summer because of their warmer, humid climate, but they also have to worry about hurricanes in the fall.
Getting the funding is one thing, but setting up the infrastructure for a mosquito control program can take time, other officials said.
“From the local aspect, even with great resources you still can have the outbreak,” said Robert Eadie, health officer and administrator for the Monroe County Health Department, a Florida county that includes Key West and Florida Keys islands.
Meanwhile, the White House is pressing Congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funding to combat Zika.
Of that funding, $828 million would go to the CDC to support Zika response in states and territories with the mosquito Aedes aegypti. The pesky bug is found in roughly 28 states primarily in southwest, south and Midatlantic states.
The CDC has diverted $2.5 million in emergency preparedness grants to states to send to Puerto Rico, where the virus is spreading rapidly, said Anne Schuchat, CDC’s principal deputy.
Congress wants more answers from the administration on the request, primarily whether leftover funding for the Ebola outbreak could be used.
But CDC Director Tom Frieden said during a media briefing at the summit that the federal government can only do so much.
“We need sustainable mosquito control throughout the country,” he said. “We will do whatever we can at the federal government, but state and local governments also need to do more.”
