Zika money ‘essentially all spent’: US doctors

Miami : Money to fight the spread of Zika virus in the United States is “essentially all spent,” top US doctors said yesterday, urging Congress to come to agreement on new funding measures.

The United States and its territories have recorded more than 19,600 Zika infections, and Florida is seeing a rise in locally transmitted cases of the virus, which is particularly dangerous for pregnant women because it can cause microcephaly, an irreversible deformation of the brain and skull, in infants.

Already, 18 babies have been born with Zika-related birth defects in the United States, said Beth Bell, director of the US Centres for Disease Control(CDC) and Prevention’s National Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

However, a $1.1 billion funding bill was rejected last week for the third time by US Senate Democrats, after Republicans inserted language that would end funding for a major abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.

Leading doctors from the CDC, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the American Academy of Paediatrics warned that critical elements of the public health response and research on vaccines may come to a halt by month’s end.

“Funding for Zika research, for prevention and for control efforts is essentially all spent,” said Bell.

She said lawmakers have provided no funds for health authorities in the next fiscal year, which begins in October.

“There will be severely limited capacity to support mosquito control and surveillance, no funds to conduct multi-year studies needed to protect pregnant women by better understanding the link between Zika disease and birth defects, and no support to states and territories like Florida and Puerto Rico to manage cases of Zika-diagnosed patients,” Bell warned.

Important work on vaccine research may be suspended or cancelled,  she said.

“Allowing this to happen will result in more Zika infections and  potentially more babies being born with microcephaly and other birth defects.”(AFP)