Rep. Vern Buchanan backs spending $1.9 billion to fight Zika

MANATEE -- With Zika now elevated to "Level 1" emergency status by the Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan on Monday announced he supports the major infusion of cash suggested by President Barack Obama to eradicate the mosquito-borne virus, a move that puts him out of step with some in the Republican Party.

"Washington needs to put the health of Americans first and fully fund efforts to eradicate the Zika virus," Buchanan said in a news release Monday.

The Obama administration has asked Congress to approve about $1.9 billion in new federal spending to combat Zika, but partisan fighting has frozen action on the request, Buchanan said.

"There's a reason why the public has lost confidence in Washington -- and this is the latest example," Buchanan said. "Instead of working together to protect Americans, Washington has descended into another partisan fight, with both parties blaming each other for inaction on a growing and deadly health threat."

Buchanan said he supports the additional $1.9 billion in funding requested by Obama to contain and eradicate the virus based on new information he has learned.

For one, he said, researchers have now determined that up to 29 percent -- not 1 percent as originally believed -- of pregnant women infected with Zika showed fetal abnormalities and that Zika eats away at the fetal brain and destroys the ability to think.

New evidence also shows that the disease can be sexually transmitted, in addition to being carried by mosquitoes, Buchanan added.

Finally, the CDC on Friday announced that the death of a 70-year-old man in Puerto Rico in February was due to Zika, the first death on U.S. soil, Buchanan said.

Buchanan also notes that the CDC's emergency operations center has been put on a "Level 1" status -- its highest level of activation -- as a result of the Zika outbreak.

The CDC has only put its operations center at Level 1 three times in the past: during the Ebola outbreak in 2014; during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009; and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Buchanan said.

In Florida, the number of Zika cases has reached 96, according to the Florida Department of Health. All 96 cases are travel-related and none have come from local transmissions, the health department website states. Manatee and Sarasota counties have had none of the travel-related cases, but Hillsborough County has had three, according to the DOH website.

"Zika's shadow is spreading too quickly in Florida, which has one-quarter of all the Zika cases in the United States," Buchanan said. "The rest of the country should keep in mind that summer is coming and so are the mosquitoes. Congress needs to act quickly."

The $1.9 billion Obama and Buchanan are calling for would be used to expand education, prevention and mosquito control programs; improve diagnostics and testing; develop a vaccine; and research the complications of contracting the virus, Buchanan said.

Buchanan was one of the first in Congress to back using emergency federal funding to fight the virus, according to the release.

Last month the Obama administration tapped into existing funds to fight Zika, mirroring legislation Buchanan co-sponsored.

In February, Buchanan announced his support for the Zika Response and Safety Act -- H.R. 4446 -- which would allow government agencies to use Ebola funding previously appropriated by Congress to prevent further outbreaks of the Zika virus.

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Rep. Vern Buchanan backs spending $1.9 billion to fight Zika ."