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Dr. Anthony Fauci: "The more and more we learn, the more you get concerned about the scope of what this virus is doing"
Health officials taking money from other areas because Zika can't wait
(CNN) —
“Everything we look at with this (Zika) virus seems to be a little scarier than we initially thought,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC principal deputy director, told reporters during a White House briefing on Monday.
She was joined by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease at the NIH. “The more and more we learn, the more you get concerned about the scope of what this virus is doing,” he said.
Both continued to remind the public that new information about the virus is being learned every day.
They reviewed what’s been learned in the two weeks since they last addressed White House reporters on the virus.
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A pest control worker fumigates a school corridor on the eve of the annual national Primary School Evaluation Test in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, September 4. Malaysia reported its first locally transmitted Zika case on September 3.
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Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A banner about Zika virus is seen as ferry passengers arriving from Singapore get in line at the immigration check on September 4, in Batam, Indonesia.
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Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A banner is flown over the South Pointe Park area, Tuesday, September 6, in Miami Beach, Florida.
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Alan Diaz/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A pest control worker fumigates drains at a local housing estate where the latest case of Zika infections were reported on Thursday, September 1, in Singapore.
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Wong Maye-E/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Surgeon General Dr. Celeste Philip address the media gathered at the Miami-Dade County Department of Health as they announce five cases of Zika in a 1.5 mile area of Miami Beach on Friday, August 19, in Miami, Florida.
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Angel Valentin/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Brazil's interim President Michel Temer, center right, meets with officials during Temer's first visit to the Olympic Park on Thursday, June 14, in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games commence August 5 amid a political and economic crisis in the country along with the Zika virus outbreak.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Rio 2016 Chief Medical Officer Joao Grangeiro, Municipal Secretary of Health Daniel Soranz and Sub-secretary of the State for Health and Surveillence Alexandre Chieppe field questions from the media during an International Media Briefing to address the Zika virus on Tuesday, June 7, in Rio de Janeiro.
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Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A health worker fumigates an area in Gama, Brazil, to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito on Wednesday, February 17. The mosquito carries the Zika virus, which has suspected links to birth defects in newborn children. The World Health Organization expects the Zika outbreak to spread to almost every country in the Americas.
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Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A man places a mosquito net over a bed at a home for the elderly in Masaya, Nicaragua, on Thursday, February 11.
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OSWALDO RIVAS/REUTERS/Newscom
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
An Aedes aegypti mosquito floats in stagnant water inside a tire at a used tire store in Villavicencio, Colombia, on Thursday, February 4.
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Fernando Vergara/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A health worker fumigates an area in Caracas, Venezuela, on Tuesday, February 2.
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MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EFE/Sipa USA
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A lab worker exposes his arm to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes during testing at the Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Monday, February 1.
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Saul Martinez/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Tainara Lourenco sits inside her home in Recife, Brazil, on Friday, January 29. Lourenco, five months pregnant, lives at the epicenter of Brazil's Zika outbreak. The Zika virus has been linked to microcephaly, a neurological disorder that results in newborns with small heads and abnormal brain development.
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Felipe Dana/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Dr. Angela Rocha shows brain scans of a baby born with microcephaly at the Oswaldo Cruz Hospital in Recife on Thursday, January 28.
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Felipe Dana/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Alice Vitoria Gomes Bezerra, a 3-month-old baby with microcephaly, is placed in her crib by her father Wednesday, January 27, in Recife.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A health ministry employee fumigates a home in Soyapango, El Salvador, on January 27.
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Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A lab technician at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Institute stores Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to be used in research in Recife on January 27.
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Felipe Dana/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A patient suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome recovers at a hospital in San Salvador, El Salvador, on January 27. Researchers are looking into a possible link between Zika and Guillain-Barre, a rare disorder that causes the body's immune system to attack its nerves.
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MARVIN RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Luiz Felipe lives in Recife and is one of more than 4,000 babies in Brazil born with microcephaly since October. The drought-stricken impoverished state of Pernambuco has been the hardest-hit, registering 33% of recent cases.
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Miguel Castro/CNN
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A health worker sprays insecticide under the bleachers of Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome on Tuesday, January 26.
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Leo Correa/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A Brazilian soldier inspects a home in Recife on Monday, January 25, while canvassing the neighborhood and attempting to eradicate the larvae of mosquitoes linked to the virus.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
David Henrique Ferreira, a 5-month-old who has microcephaly, is watched by his brother in Recife on January 25.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
The larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are photographed in a lab in Cali, Colombia, on January 25. Scientists are studying the mosquitoes to control their reproduction and resistance to insecticides.
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LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Angelica Prato, a pregnant woman infected by the Zika virus, receives medical attention at a hospital in Cucuta, Colombia, on January 25.
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SCHNEYDER MENDOZA/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman walks through fumes as health ministry employees fumigate an area in Soyapango on Thursday, January 21.
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MARVIN RECINOS/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Brazilian soldiers apply insect repellent as they prepare for a cleanup operation in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, January 20.
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Andre Penner/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A researcher at the University of Sao Paulo holds a container with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes on Monday, January 18.
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Andre Penner/AP
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
A graveyard in Lima, Peru, is fumigated on Friday, January 15.
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ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Zika virus outbreak
Aedes aegypti mosquitos are seen at the University of Sao Paulo on January 8. Researchers from the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, came to Brazil to train local researchers to combat the Zika virus epidemic.
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NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
The mosquito-borne disease is a cause of microcephaly, according to the World Health Organization, but Schuchat said experts are now linking the virus to premature birth, eye problems and other neurological conditions in babies born to mothers who were infected while pregnant.
These concerns are no longer limited to exposure to the virus only during the first trimester. There is reason to be concerned throughout the pregnancy.
Schuchat also noted revised surveillance maps of the Zika-carrying mosquito, Aedes aegypti, released last month, showing that the insects could be more widespread than previously thought, reaching as far north as San Francisco and New York.
Fauci said researchers are on track with their goal to begin a clinical trial for a vaccine in September. He also said his teams have screened 62 existing drugs as possible treatments. Fifteen have been identified for further research, although he cautioned they may not pan out.
Progress is also being made in the lab with the recent molecular discovery that potentially sheds light on why the virus, which is so similar to dengue fever, infects neurological tissue.
Fauci said there are now two mouse models that could help researchers understand how and why neurological tissue is infected by the virus. And with a monkey model is allowing, they can compare how the virus behaves when the host is pregnant as compared with not pregnant.
The end point is to protect Americans, especially pregnant women, which is why the agencies have been working around the clock. They can’t say for sure how widespread the virus will be in the United States.
So far there have been at least 346 cases of the virus in the continental United States, according to the CDC. Most of these among travelers returning from currently affected countries and territories. There are no reported cases of mosquito transmitted Zika infection at this time.
“While we absolutely hope we don’t see widespread local transmission in the continental U.S., we need the states to be ready for that,” Schuchat said.
In the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands, however, there have been 354 cases of the virus so far, most of them locally transmitted in their tropical climates. This is why the CDC is concerned. Schuchat said there could be hundreds of thousands of cases of Zika virus in Puerto Rico and that hundreds of babies could be affected by microcephaly.
As they’ve done before, they appealed to Congress for an emergency $1.9 billion to keep the virus at bay.
In February, the administration asked Congress for $1.9 billion in emergency supplemental funding to fight the Zika virus. Congress has yet to act on that request.
Last week, the White House said it was redirecting $589 million to the cause. The White House made it clear the $1.9 billion was still needed and the redirected money, which includes $510 million of unused Ebola funds, would need to be replaced.
Fauci echoed that Monday. He said the money also being taken from work being done on tuberculosis and malaria.
“If we don’t refurbish that money, those programs are going to stop when they reach the point that they run out of money. What we’re trying to do is keep everything going,” he said.
Then he became more direct, “I can’t image that we’re not going to be given the money when we reach the point when every time we come in front of you we tell you things that are more serious.”
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Without directly telling Congress to approve the funding request, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters the information from Schuchat and Fauci would “serve as motivation for members of Congress to pay careful attention to this top priority.”
“We can’t assume that we’re not going to have a big problem. We know with other viruses we’ve had bigger problems than we expected. We’re taking this very seriously.” Schuchat said.