WHO asks for $56 million to fight Zika
The World Health Organization is asking nations around the world for $56 million to fight the Zika virus through the end of June, according to an action plan released Tuesday.
The organization calls the epidemic a "public health emergency of international concern" based partly on the link between Zika and an increase in birth defects in Brazil.
The WHO will use its $2.3 million emergency fund to finance the initial response, spokesman Tarik Jašarević said.
The three major parts of the plan are surveillance, which includes tracking new Zika cases and complications; response, which includes working with communities to control the spread of mosquitoes that spread the virus and providing guidance to pregnant women; and research, which includes studying the birth defects linked with Zika and developing vaccines, treatments and tests to diagnose for infections.
The WHO funding request extends through the end of June. The agency can request additional funds to fight Zika after that.
Brazil is seeing a large increase in cases of microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies have abnormally small heads and incomplete brain development. The WHO plan calls for providing women with contraception, prenatal care, mosquito repellent and insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent Zika infections.
Trash-strewn streets in impoverished urban slums provide ideal breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that spread Zika.
Brazil, the country hardest hit by Zika with an estimated 1.5 million cases, mobilized its military to control the insects, a job that includes cleaning up trash where standing water collects and provides breeding sites.
According to the WHO, public health staff in Brazil have visited 20 million households to identify places with standing water. Brazil has mobilized more than 500,000 people to control mosquitoes, educate people about the risks of Zika and provide health care.
As of the end of January, Brazil's Ministry of Health reported 4,783 cases of microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies have abnormally small heads and, usually, incomplete brain development. Brazil has also reported 76 deaths.
Brazilian authorities have investigated 1,113 of the suspected microcephaly cases, ruling out 709 and confirming 404 of them. About 3,670 suspected microcephaly cases are still under investigation.
Earlier this month, President Obama asked Congress for $1.8 billion to fight Zika.