Obama says money to fight Zika virus is ‘running out’

It is meant to promote an immune response that would protect against the mosquito-borne virus that can cause devastating birth defects, according to a statement from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He said that the agency has worked hard to ready the experimental vaccine, and that the testing on animals shows encouraging results.

Beth Israel’s Barouch said: “The World Health Organization has declared the Zika epidemic a public health emergency”.

In the monkey study, one vaccine followed the traditional approach, using a dead Zika virus to train the body for fighting off infection. Congress has interrupted its own recesses at least eight times since 1998, most recently in 2013 when lawmakers returned early to debate the use of military force in Syria, according to congressional records.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Tuesday that’s there’s no excuse for not spending money that Congress already has provided.

“Now we have the first local transmission in Florida, and there will certainly be more”, Obama said.

Rhesus monkeys vaccinated with it “showed complete protection against both Brazilian and Puerto Rican strains of Zika”, said the study.

Most Zika infections have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean. The babies can be born with microcephaly, a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age.

“I would be very, very surprised if anything came out before 2018”, he said. The reason: better insect control as well as window screens and air conditioning that should help curtail any outbreaks. Many Florida businesses depend heavily on tourism and the state’s economy could be hurt if potential visitors decide to stay away, he said.

Money set aside to fight the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus is running low, and some funds could run out by the end of August, according to a letter to House Democrats from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.

President Obama today pressured Congress to pass his $1.9 billion funding for combating the growing Zika threat.

Among other recommendations, the CDC urges pregnant women not to travel to Wynwood, a neighborhood just north of the downtown Miami, where the virus seems to be spreading.

That’s a big benefit to such a vaccine, she said.

Zika can cause damages within the first three months of pregnancy. In addition to the NIH trials, Inovio Pharmaceuticals began testing its experimental Zika vaccine July 26. “So figuring out how to control mosquitoes there is going to take a lot of creativity and a lot of community engagement because you have to get rid of every drop of standing water”.

The mosquito-borne virus, now believed to cause microcephaly and other problems in infants, was identified in humans in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania in 1952, according to the World Health Organization, which declared a world health emergency February 1 as the virus exploded in Latin America.

Here are key points to know about the anti-Zika legislation.