For most, the threat posed by the Zika virus still seems a continent away, a concern for those in South and Central America or those planning to travel there.
The mosquito-borne virus, however, does have the potential to reach into the United States, specifically Gulf Coast states where the species of mosquito that carries the virus is known to live. A second species that also is considered a potential carrier has a wider spread that includes most of the southern U.S., much of the East Coast and parts of the Midwest.
The Zika virus is rarely fatal. Only 1 in 5 of those infected show any symptoms, which are typically mild and include a rash, fever, joint pain and reddened eyes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the virus can cause birth defects when pregnant women are infected either by mosquitoes or through sexual contact with an infected person and pass the virus on to the fetus. The most common birth defect is microcephaly, which results in infants with abnormally small heads and reduced brain development.
At least two Washington state residents have been infected with the Zika virus; both contracted the virus while traveling. One was a pregnant woman, but the child showed no symptoms of infection at birth. But a child in Hawaii was born with microcephaly after her mother was infected with the Zika virus while in Brazil.
It takes little imagination to see the threat posed not only to public health but in the increased costs for prevention, care and treatment that could result from a significant outbreak of Zika in the United States.
Which is why the Obama administration earlier in the year requested up to $1.9 billion in emergency spending from Congress for programs that control the mosquitoes and fund research into potential vaccines and public education programs to limit transmission.
That initial request was met with doubts and opposition among Republicans in Congress. Rather than wait for Congress to recognize the threat, giving the disease a head start in the U.S., Obama instead diverted $589 million in existing federal funds, including $510 million that had been allocated earlier to study and combat the Ebola virus.
While Zika poses a more immediate threat, Ebola hasn’t disappeared and remains without a cure or vaccine. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, admitted the White House had little choice, but told The Washington Post earlier this month, “We’re putting ourselves at risk by taking the Ebola funding.”
Along with the $510 million diverted from combatting Ebola, another $44 million also was drained from federal grants to local and state health departments, money used to fund a broad range of public health programs. Some agencies, the Washington Post reported Monday, lost as much as 9 percent of their federal funding. And those losses come on top of earlier cuts of federal funding for state and local public health programs. The nation’s 2,800 local health departments received $863 million in federal funding in 2005, a figure that has dropped to $568 million this year, according to figures from the National Association of County and City Health Officials and cited by the Post.
Opposition, at least in the Senate, may be softening. Last week, Sen. Murray noted that Senate Republicans were now negotiating an emergency funding proposal to address Zika, while also restoring some of the funding diverted from Ebola work. On Tuesday, Murray called for the Senate to pass an emergency funding package this week.
Moving funding through the House could be more difficult. Earlier this month, the Post wrote that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told reporters that the government had “plenty of money,” available to fight Zika and that an additional appropriation wasn’t necessary.
Should the Senate approve emergency funding to fight the Zika virus, we hope Sen. Murray can use her past rapport with Speaker Ryan — the pair brokered the 2013 budget agreement — and secure passage in the House.
And as long as we’re advocating for ounces of prevention against Zika and Ebola, let’s recognize the value provided to public health and pocketbook by amply funding the work of state and local health departments.
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