White House Plans To Use Ebola Funds To Help Fight Zika
Officials say the administration will transfer much of the $600 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Barack Obama had asked for about $1.9 billion to combat the virus, but Congress stalled on the request saying the country should use up the leftover funding for Ebola.
The Associated Press:
White House To Transfer Ebola Funds To Combat Zika Virus
Congressional officials say the Obama administration is about to announce it will transfer leftover money from the largely successful fight against Ebola to combat the growing threat of the Zika virus. The officials say roughly 75 percent of the $600 million or so would be devoted to the Centers for Disease Control. The agency focuses on research and development of anti-Zika vaccines, treating those infected with the virus and combating the mosquitoes that spread it. (Taylor, 4/6)
STAT:
White House Will Dip Into Ebola Funding To Fight Zika, Possibly Ending Impasse
The Obama administration plans to spend unused Ebola funds to fight the Zika virus, a breakthrough that could ease the standoff with Congress over the administration’s request for emergency money for the crisis. The administration will jump-start the Zika effort using leftover money that Congress had given the health agencies to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to two congressional sources. The biggest amount of unused money is $600 million that was intended to help 30 countries improve, and in some cases build, public health systems to make them better prepared to fight future infectious diseases. (Nather and Scott, 4/5)
Meanwhile, some families who have loved ones with microcephaly want people to know Zika isn't the only cause —
The Des Moines Register:
Iowa Girl's Small Head Traced To Genetics, Not Zika
Keera Galindo has lived 15 years with an unusually small head but only a few months with a public spotlight on the surprisingly common condition. Keera and scores of other Iowa children have microcephaly, meaning their brains and skulls are undersize. Few Americans had heard of the condition until last winter. That changed as news reports filled with alarming images from South and Central America, where babies are being born with a severe form of microcephaly after their mothers were infected with a mosquito-borne virus called Zika. (Leys, 4/5)
