WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are saying that the Zika virus is more dangerous than previously thought. And while federal money left over from the fight against Ebola is being transferred to combat Zika, they say it’s time for a full-blown effort to combat the spread of the disease.
“The more we learn about Zika, the more concerned we get,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told WTOP on Tuesday.
It’s been known that babies of pregnant women who contract the Zika virus can have abnormally small heads, signaling brain damage. But Fauci said that case reports and testing on animal samples has provided new details on “how strongly destructive this virus is to neurological tissue.”
On Monday, Fauci and Dr. Anne Schuchat, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a White House briefing that researchers have linked Zika to stillbirths, miscarriages and other complications — and not just in the first trimester, as previously thought, but throughout pregnancy.
They added that there’s evidence that some conditions, such as the paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome, may be linked to Zika. And Brazilian researchers say that two Zika patients were suffering from a brain inflammation that looks similar to multiple sclerosis.
Congress hasn’t moved on the president’s request for $1.9 billion to fight Zika. In the meantime, the CDC is using $589 million left over from the efforts to combat Ebola. Fauci called Congress’s failure to approve the new spending “unfortunate, because we really need that supplement. So I hope it comes through.”
Fauci told WTOP that the National Institutes of Health is conducting tests, but so far there is no treatment.
“What we do when someone gets sick is, we support them,” Fauci said, explaining that that means providing symptom relief.
The problem, though, is that “the infection, in someone who is not pregnant, generally is a mild infection,” even though it can cause serious neurological problems.
The CDC says that women who are pregnant, may be pregnant or want to become pregnant shouldn’t travel to Zika-affected areas. Men who have been to Zika-affected areas should either use condoms or abstain from sex with women who fit the profile.
Officials add that while they don’t foresee a widespread outbreak of Zika in the U.S., about 300 cases have been reported among American travelers. The CDC says that people coming back from Zika-affected areas need to take extra precautions to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes at home, so as not to infect local mosquitoes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
