President Obama is asking Congress for millions of dollars in emergency funding to combat Zika, a virus spreading rapidly in South and Central America that has also been found in the United States.
The administration announced Monday it’s asking lawmakers for more than $1.8 billion for its efforts to prepare for and respond to Zika by alerting the public, providing public health labs with diagnostic tests and detecting and reporting new cases. Nearly $1.5 billion would go to the Department of Health and Human Services, $335 million would go to the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the State Department would get $41 million.
“The requested resources will build on our ongoing preparedness efforts and will support essential strategies to combat this virus,” the White House said in a statement Monday morning.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will address mounting concerns about the virus’ rapid spread at a White House briefing around noon on Monday. The White House announcement comes in advance of President Obama’s budget request to Congress, which he will release on Tuesday.
The Zika virus, which spreads through mosquitos and contact with some bodily fluids, causes only minor symptoms in a majority of patients, but has been linked to severe birth defects if pregnant women contract it. U.S. health officials are working on a vaccine, but say it is likely years away.
The Pan American Health Organization has reported that the virus is being locally transmitted in 26 countries and territories in the Americas. Only one case in the U.S. has been confirmed to have been transmitted domestically, through sexual contact, while the rest of patients contracted the virus while traveling internationally.
The CDC says 50 Americans, all travelers, had been diagnosed with the virus as of Friday.
