Zika

email from Dr. Bernard De Silva. Here are today's top stories. Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Leading the News Zika “scarier” than initially thought, CDC official says USA Today (4/11, Korte) reports, “Public health officials said Monday they’ve learned a lot more about Zika since the White House asked Congress for $1.9 billion to combat the mosquito-borne virus and are increasingly concerned about its potential impact on the” US. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the CDC, said, “Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought.” Dr. Schuchat “said the virus has been linked to a broader array of birth defects throughout a longer period of pregnancy, including premature birth and blindness in addition to the smaller brain size caused by microcephaly.”         The New York Times (4/11, Davis, Subscription Publication) reports that “the mosquito that carries the Zika virus is present in 30 states, more than twice what officials originally thought, Dr. Schuchat said, though no locally acquired cases have been reported yet,” which “indicates that mosquitoes in the states do not yet have the virus.”         The AP (4/11, Neergaard) reports that although President Obama “has sought about $1.9 billion in emergency money to help fight the Zika epidemic internationally and to prepare in case the virus spreads in the U.S....the request has stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress.” Just “last week, the administration said it would use $589 million in funds left over from the Ebola outbreak for some of that work.” However, “that ‘is not enough for us to get the job done,’ said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, whose agency hopes to have a possible vaccine ready for first-stage safety testing in early fall.”         For more information, visit the AMA’s Zika Virus Resource Center.