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U.S. NEWSTuesday 9 February 2016
Obama asking Congress for emergency funding to combat Zika
KEVIN FREKING ed of causing a devastat- “What we now know is that White House Press secretary Josh Earnest, left, and Dr. Anne
Associated Press ing birth defect — babies there appears to be some
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- born with abnormally small significant risk for pregnant Schuchat, center, Principal
dent Barack Obama is ask- heads — and pregnant women and women who Deputy Director of the CDC,
ing Congress for more than Americans are urged to are thinking about having listen as Dr. Anthony Fauci,
$1.8 billion in emergency avoid travel to affected ar- a baby,” Obama said in an director of NIH/NIAID, answer
funding to fight the Zika vi- eas. interview aired Monday on questions from members of the
rus and the mosquitoes that U.S. health officials say the “CBS This Morning.” media during the daily brief-
spread it here and abroad, money is critical for re- And while experts don’t ing in the Brady Press Briefing
but says “there shouldn’t search into the birth defect expect large outbreaks in Room of the White House in
be a panic on this.” known as microcephaly. the continental U.S., the Washington, Monday, Feb. 8,
The virus is spreading rap- They also want to speed emergency funding also 2016.
idly through Latin America. development of a vac- would help them prepare (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez
While most people expe- cine and better diagnos- for any local transmission Monsivais)
rience either mild or no tic tests, and expand mos- as spring and summer ap-
symptoms, Zika is suspect- quito control programs. proach. The administration is seeking the Zika money
separately from the regu-
lar budget for the next fis-
cal year, which Obama
will submit to Congress on
Tuesday.
“For the average Ameri-
can, this is not something
that will change our day-
to-day life,” Dr. Anne
Schuchat of the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention told reporters
at a White House briefing.
“Our focus is on protect-
ing pregnant women and
trying to control the mos-
quito.”
Most of the money would
go to health officials for
such things as improving
laboratory testing capac-
ity, education and es-
tablishing rapid response
teams. About $250 million
of assistance would be di-
rected specifically to Puer-
to Rico though extra Med-
icaid funding for health
services, and $200 million
would go toward research
and commercialization of
new vaccines and diag-
nostic tests.
The remainder, about $335
million would go to the U.S.
Agency for International
Development to help af-
fected countries provide
training to health workers,
stimulate private sector re-
search and help pregnant
women gain access to re-
pellant to protect against
mosquitoes.q
