As Zika continues to spread, NC's mosquitoes pose a problem

With their annual Memorial Day recess fast approaching, Congress remains locked in debate over funding to combat the growing threat of Zika virus in the United States.

The Zika Response Appropriations Act was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 16 as a part of House Resolution 736. The introduction of this act came after several months of debate over the urgency of the Zika threat, dating back to February 3 of this year when Senators Lamar Alexander and Richard Burr wrote a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Burwell.

The White House responded by asking Congress for over $1.8 billion in funds to combat the virus and, by April 6, reallocated $589 million that were unallocated after the Ebola outbreak of 2014 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The act currently in debate, if passed, will provide extra funding for the fiscal year, which ends in September, to combat the virus with vaccination development and treatment of existing cases. This funding totals to approximately $1.24 billion when combined with the earlier reallocation of Ebola resources.

Funds would be distributed among the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund of the Office of the Secretary, the Administration of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Bilateral Economic Assistance.

After debate on May 18, the act passed in the House by a 241-184 vote, but was immediately followed by a motion to reconsider. There was no objection to the motion and the resolution was stayed despite 591 known Zika cases in the United States.

Helen Lazear is an assistant professor and Zika virus researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the school of medicine.

“Already a number of federal agencies are involved with Zika virus response and that included agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes for Health, and so a lot of good efforts are already underway, but they need adequate funding in order to be continued,” Lazear said.

In North Carolina, there have been 12 reported cases of the Zika virus, but so far all are travel-related. Sexual transmission of the virus, however, makes locally-originating cases an increasingly serious risk, particularly after the North Carolina mosquito tracking and control programs were defunded under former Governor Bev Perdue and current Governor Pat McCrory.

The Zika virus has a causal role for the development of birth defects, according to Lazear. One of the most prominent of these is microcephaly, in which stunted brain development leads to an underdeveloped skull in newborns. In adults, the Zika virus is also linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, an auto-immune disease which may lead to paralysis.

“There’s a number of aspects of Zika virus that are unusual compared to what we’ve seen with other viruses, and we have a lot of work to do to understand, for example, how the virus is able to cross the placenta and cause fetal damage,” Lazear said. “Understanding those mechanisms is really important for being able to provide good advice and to guide public health measures.”

state@dailytarheel.com