Obama seeks $1.8B to prevent, combat Zika virus

President Barack Obama is calling on the US Congress to sign off on $1.8 billion in emergency funds to fight the Zika virus.

It said it is asking the Congress for more than Dollars 1.8 billion in emergency funding to enhance ongoing efforts to respond to the Zika virus domestically and internationally.

The administration’s request would inject almost $1.5 billion into the Health and Human Services Department would, among other things, help the Centers for Disease Control monitor and track suspected cases of Zika in the USA, particularly areas susceptible to large populations of the mosquito vector.

Most of the money – $828 million – would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prepare resources in case of an eventual Zika outbreak in the mainland United States. But there are suspicions that the fetus of infected pregnant women may be at risk for a rare birth defect that causes brain damage and an abnormally small head.

In addition, the London-based European Medicines Agency (EMA), Europe’s drugs regulator, said it has formed a task force on Zika to advise companies working on vaccines and medicines against the virus. Local transmission is what’s needed for a Zika outbreak, like the one that started it all, in Brazil in 2015. And $210 million would go to a new fund to respond to new outbreaks if they appear in the United States. He said the funding should also be targeted in low-income areas along the Gulf of Mexico, which tend to be hit hardest by mosquito-borne diseases, partly because residents may not be able to afford air conditioning or even window screens.

Also, Colombia’s Health Ministry said last week that three people have died in Colombia from Zika-related cases of Guillain Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that can cause temporary paralysis and, in rare cases, death.

A widespread vaccine against the virus is likely a few years away.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH/NIAID, listens at left as Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the CDC, speak to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 8, 2016. Fauci noted that those same mosquitoes spread dengue and chikungunya, cousins of Zika, and that there has been some transmission of those viruses in recent years.

USA health officials are urging all pregnant women returning from affected countries to get tested.

“We don’t know exactly what the relations there are, but there is enough correlation that we have to take this very seriously”, Obama said. On the other side of the Capitol, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was quick to endorse the presidents proposal.“The spread of the Zika virus requires a robust, proactive USA response to protect American communities and combat this disease across our hemisphere, ” said Pelosi, D-Calif.

First, more research. Scientists still need to better understand the virus, to get a handle on how exactly it spreads.

The funding request, which is to be made official on Tuesday, comes a week after the World Health Organization declared an global public health emergency.