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 They said the $1.1 billion in newly approved funding for Zika would
be used to expand mosquito control programs, accelerate vaccine
development and begin important studies of its effect on babies and
children born to mothers infected during pregnancy.
President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion in
emergency Zika funding. After months of political wrangling,
Congress last week finally approved a little more than half of that
to fight the virus.
"Because we've had to wait these seven months, we haven't been able
to get a running start on some of the critically important studies
to understand more fully the impacts of Zika, to establish better
diagnostic tests, to improve our way of controlling mosquitoes,"
said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, adding that vaccine development efforts were
also delayed.
Health officials on a conference call with reporters also said money
they had redirected from other efforts, such as for Ebola and cancer
research, was unlikely to be reimbursed.
"There's a cost to protecting Americans from the dollars that were
reprogrammed," Frieden said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell promised that the
new funds would be allocated quickly. But she said critical time and
energy were spent on working to get the funding instead of working
to use it.
"That money would be out the door if we had received it at the time
we asked for it," Burwell said.
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Asked for examples of what would not be funded or would be
underfunded because Congress approved $800 million less than what
was requested, Burwell pointed to hard-hit Puerto Rico. She said
$141 million would be earmarked for Puerto Rico and other U.S.
territories out of $271 million that had been requested.
There are more than 25,000 cases of the mosquito-borne virus in the
United States and its territories, including more than 2,300
involving pregnant women. Most of the cases are in Puerto Rico, but
there is a limited active outbreak in Miami.
The virus, which can also be transmitted through sex with an
infected person, has been linked to a variety of serious birth
defects, including microcephaly and severe brain abnormalities.
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