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U.S. awards 60 mln USD to states, territories to fight Zika

Xinhua, July 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The U.S. federal government will award a combined total of 60 million U.S. dollars to states and territories to fight the Zika virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.

The announcement came as health officials in Florida said they were investigating what could be the first Zika infection from a mosquito bite in the continental United States.

The CDC said in a statement the new money aimed to help protect the health of the American public, especially pregnant women, support epidemiologic surveillance and investigation, improve mosquito control and monitoring, and strengthen laboratory capacity.

It will also support participation in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry to monitor pregnant women with Zika and their infants, as well as Zika-related activities in U.S.-Mexico border states.

"Local, state and territorial health departments are on the front lines in the fight against Zika," the statement quoted CDC Director Tom Frieden as saying.

"These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat for pregnant women and babies."

U.S. President Barack Obama has requested 1.9 billion dollars to combat Zika, but the budget has not been approved by Congress.

The new funding will be available to jurisdictions on Aug. 1 and is in addition to 25 million dollars awarded on July 1 as part of CDC's preparedness and response funding to states, cities, and territories in areas at risk for outbreaks of Zika, the agency said.

The CDC said it also will award another 10 million dollars on August 1 for states and territories to quickly identify cases of microcephaly and other birth defects linked to Zika and to refer affected families to services.

Zika spreads to people primarily through mosquito bites, and it can also be spread sexually.

As of July 20, more than 1,400 cases of Zika have been reported in the continental United States, but none of these have been the result of local spread by mosquitoes, according to the CDC. Endit