The consequences of a $1.2 billion cut, which is one-eighth of the CDC’s entire budget, would trickle down to county health departments in Florida and Texas that were hard hit by Zika last summer.
The county agencies relied on federal support for laboratory testing and ground-level surveillance.
President Trump’s budget proposal also includes cutting $109 million to the public health emergency preparedness program and another $40 million to the epidemiology and laboratory capacity program, according to Laura Hanen, interim executive director and chief of government affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Hanen was part of a press briefing Wednesday about the status of Zika and how Trump’s proposed cuts would come on top of one-time Zika funding last year that expires shortly.
Congress allocated $1.1 billion for a Zika response in 2016.
“There is no more money coming behind that unless Congress recommends a comprehensive approach,” she said.
What’s really needed is a permanent public health emergency fund so there isn’t a scramble to secure money to react each time there’s a public health threat, said Dr. Paul Jarris, chief medical officer with the March of Dimes.
“That is not how FEMA operates,” Jarris said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that responds to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, on Wednesday sent a letter to Dr. Tom Price, secretary of Health and Human Services, sounding the alarm about the administration’s budget plan that includes cutting $7.2 billion from the National Institutes of Health that supports vaccine development research.
In addition, Nelson’s letter referenced $35 million that would be slashed from the CDC’s center on birth defects and developmental disabilities, another $65 million in cuts for emerging infectious diseases, and $135 million would be slashed from the CDC’s public health preparedness.
“Families in Florida and throughout the country deserve better,” Nelson said. “I urge you to reconsider these cuts, and I stand ready to work with you to provide the resources our country needs to respond to the Zika virus.”
Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida is launching a Zika health awareness program in Collier County to reach women in underserved areas to educate them about protecting themselves against infection.
The program is the result of research with Florida Gulf Coast University last year to determine how at-risk groups use information about Zika protection.
The study was conducted by Dr. Charles O. Daramola, assistant professor and program director of community health at the Marieb College of Health & Human Services at FGCU.
“Our job is to prevent disease, to educate the community,” Daramola said in a news release announcing the public awareness campaign that will include public service announcements and other efforts in multiple languages.
There have been 5,300 cases of Zika in the U.S. mainland since the outbreak began last year with 224 cases that were locally acquired through bites from infected mosquitoes or through sexual contact, according to the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
So far this year in Florida, there have been 50 travel-related cases, four locally transmitted infections and 43 pregnant women with evidence of Zika infection, according to the Florida Department of Health.
About 1 in 5 people infected with Zika become symptomatic, which generally involves a low-grade fever, rash and joint pain. Pregnant women are at risk if their unborn babies are exposed to the virus, which can lead to birth defects and neurological deficits as the infants get older.
Florida was hit with nearly 1,400 cases last year, mainly around Miami, through travel-based infections that began in the spring.
By summer the outbreak had expanded to include locally based cases through infected mosquitoes.
Public health officials in Tallahassee and Miami scrambled to respond, and Gov. Rick Scott was highly critical of the delayed federal action under the Obama administration and the potential harm to the tourism industry.
The main preventive approach is continuous use of mosquito repellent, draining standing water around residences that can be a breeding ground for the Zika-carrying mosquitoes, and ongoing prenatal care for pregnant women and women of child-bearing age at risk of exposure, said Jarris, with the March of Dimes.
Responding to Zika ultimately rests with county health departments and educating the public about using mosquito repellent and reaching out to women who become pregnant or are thinking of becoming pregnant, said Dr. Oscar Alleyne, senior adviser for public health programs with the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
The Gulf Coast region around Texas and Southern states again face the greatest Zika threat this summer, he said.
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©2017 the Naples Daily News (Naples, Fla.)
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