CDC Gives Mass. $1 Million to Combat Zika Virus

BOSTON, MA—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have allocated over $1 million to Massachusetts to fight the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, part of a $60 million federal funding package announced this week.

It's meant to target Zika disease and the health outcomes that can result from infection, which the CDC says includes the serious birth defect microcephaly. Funding is distributed through CDC's Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement (ELC), will support activities to protect the health of the American public, especially pregnant women, including epidemiologic surveillance and investigation, improving mosquito control and monitoring, and strengthening laboratory capacity.

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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.

This new funding, the second round this summer, will be available starting Aug. 1. Previously the CDC distributed $25 million July 1. The CDC will also award another $10 million to states and territories on Aug. 1, geared toward quickly identifying cases of microcephaly and other birth defects linked to Zika.

Zika virus spreads to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus), although Aedes aegypti are more likely to spread Zika. Zika infection can also be spread by men and women to their sex partners.

There is currently no vaccine or treatment for Zika. Cases are extremely rare in most parts of the U.S.

Those infected often show no symptoms. Among those who do, the most common complaints are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Zika infection during pregnancy may cause microcephaly and other severe brain defects in the developing fetus. Zika also has been linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome, an uncommon sickness of the nervous system in which a person's immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis or death.