Administration to ask Congress for $1.8 billion to address Zika virus

The administration will ask Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to prepare for and respond to Zika virus here and abroad, the White House announced today. The total includes $1.48 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, $335 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development and $41 million for the Department of State. “The requested resources will build on our ongoing preparedness efforts and will support essential strategies to combat this virus, such as rapidly expanding mosquito control programs; accelerating vaccine research and diagnostic development; enabling the testing and procurement of vaccines and diagnostics; educating health care providers, pregnant women and their partners; improving epidemiology and expanding laboratory and diagnostic testing capacity; improving health services and supports for low-income pregnant women; and enhancing the ability of Zika-affected countries to better combat mosquitoes and control transmission,” the administration said. The National Institutes of Health today announced its Zika research priorities related to pregnancy, reproduction and the developing fetus. “The AHA welcomes the President’s call for additional funding to fight and understand the Zika virus and the impact it could have on communities,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “America’s hospitals will continue to work closely with their local public health officials and the CDC in their preparedness efforts.” At least 35 travel-associated cases of Zika virus have been detected in 11 states and the District of Columbia since 2015. Another 10 cases have been reported in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, all but one of them locally acquired. For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/zika and www.aha.org/zika.