Five months ago, I was alarmed to read the first stories about a new virus called Zika that was spreading through South and Central America. I was particularly concerned by reports of the disease’s devastating health consequences for pregnant women and their babies. Since then, we’ve all learned a great deal about the threat posed by the Zika virus, and it’s become clear that we have to take urgent action to stop it from becoming a full-on epidemic.
As of today, Florida has experienced 154 travel-related cases, including 36 pregnant women whose children are now at risk of developing microcephaly — a dangerous developmental condition where babies are born with heads that are too small.
So far, all of these infections have been related to travel — people went to Central and South America, were bitten by infected mosquitoes there, and came home with the virus. But as summer temperatures begin to rise, we can expect more of the mosquitoes that carry the virus to reach American shores. And we now have evidence that Zika can be sexually transmitted as well.
To spur action, my campaign has launched a petition on Change.org that has collected thousands of signatures, and I sent two of my top aides to Puerto Rico to see first-hand what more can be done to combat Zika’s spread. They spent time meeting with government officials and health experts, visiting affected neighborhoods, and observing Zika-education efforts at a local Women, Infants, and Children clinic. They saw children playing around a flooded canal — a high-risk area for contracting mosquito-borne illnesses — in an area where most families cannot afford effective repellent. And even though there is an effort under way to rid the island of stagnant water pools where mosquitoes can breed, Puerto Rican officials simply do not have the resources to contain the problem.
What they saw on the ground made it crystal clear that more emergency funding will be required to stop the spread of the Zika virus in Puerto Rico and the health crisis looming over the United States. Florida has already declared a public health emergency and is taking important steps to increase Zika awareness. But much more needs to be done at the federal level as well.
First, as Congress returns to Washington, it needs to act quickly to provide federal emergency funding. Before the recess, the Senate passed a $1.1 billion package to fund Zika research and prevention. Now, it’s time for Republicans in the House to stop playing politics with people’s health and send this bill to President Barack Obama’s desk. Only then can we finally get to work on creating a functional rapid diagnostic test for Zika, developing a vaccine, preventing further infections through mosquito control and abatement and expanding our research into the connection between Zika and microcephaly.
Second, we need to ensure that all Americans — and especially pregnant women — know how to protect themselves. Zika is especially dangerous but it often exhibits no symptoms, which can make it harder to convince people of the need to protect themselves and their families. The CDC Foundation’s campaign to increase Zika awareness education in the affected areas, as well as expanded access to contraception, deserves strong support.
Zika is real. It’s dangerous. And if we’re serious about stopping this epidemic in its tracks, then there’s no time to waste.
Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, wrote this exclusively for the Sun Sentinel.