Zika funding urged for Houston

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee called Thursday for the federal government to dedicate some emergency Zika funding to tropical areas, such as Houston and South Texas, considered particularly vulnerable to the mosquito-born virus.

At a forum of Houston public health and political leaders, Lee said she will ask President Barack Obama to create a national task force to respond to the Zika virus and at least $100 million for each of a handful of areas along the Gulf of Mexico. Obama last month requested more than $1.8 billion from Congress to fight the virus’ spread.

“We’re likely to be at the center of the storm,” said Lee, D-Houston, a member of the House homeland security committee. “I want to make sure we’re not shortchanged as any money is allocated globally.”

Houston is considered a logical candidate for Zika’s possible spread for three primary reasons: It is home to the two types of mosquitoes that transmit

the virus; it has close ties to the Latin American countries reporting the most cases, resulting in significant travel back and forth; and it includes many pockets of poverty, linked to the disease’s spread because conditions like dilapidated housing, standing water and poor street drainage help the virus thrive.

The virus has spread to at least 31 countries and territories, mostly in South America and Central America. Though not considered fatal, it has been linked to a broad array of birth defects and neurological disorders, which experts said this week are

worse than they originally suspected.

“There has never been a mosquito-borne virus that could cause serious defects on a such a large scale,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a conference call with reporters Thursday, according to the Washington Post. “As the weeks and months go by, we learn more and more about how much we don’t know, and the more we learn, the worse things seem to get.”

At the Houston forum, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical

Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, called Zika “the virus from hell.”

Education, prevention

Noting a new journal report that the virus selectively targets cells involved in the development of unborn babies, Hotez said, “I can’t imagine anything more diabolical than that.”

Six Zika infections have been confirmed in Houston, five additional cases in Harris County and at least 21 more throughout the state. All U.S. cases have been linked to foreign travel or contracted through sexual contact with someone infected abroad. However, experts worry it is only a matter of time before mosquitoes in the U.S. begin transmitting the virus.

Lee mentioned Puerto Rico, parts of Louisiana and Florida as other tropical areas that should receive targeted funding. She said she envisions such funding being spent mostly for education and prevention efforts.

Numerous Republican Texas congressmen did not respond to Chronicle requests Thursday for comment about Lee’s planned appeal.

Obama’s request for $1.8 billion in emergency funding quickly became the subject of partisan debate. Key Republican lawmakers in the House have said they think the government should instead draw from a $2.7 billion pool set aside, but not yet used, for other public health projects overseas, particularly Ebola.

Old-fashioned plan

The forum was held just ahead of Houston’s annual mosquito season, which starts in May and lasts through October. Houstonarea health officials are developing a plan to combat the spread locally. The state’s infectious disease task force, initially formed to tackle Ebola, Wednesday agreed to create a Zika subcommittee.

Researchers are trying to develop a Zika vaccine — the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the Brazilian Ministry of Health are collaborating on such an effort — but Hotez said a vaccine “won’t come in time for this epidemic.” He said Houston will have to rely on “old-fashioned mosquito-prevention measures” such as using repellent that contains the chemical DEET and eliminating sitting water where mosquitoes breed.

Lee called for DEET to be provided free to certain high-risk populations.