Dr. Anne Schuchat of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that wide range of birth defects has been linked to the Zika Virus. She also said that mosquitoes carrying the virus could travel to more US states than previously it was thought.
Zika Virus outbreak which is Currently ongoing threat broke almost year back in Brazil.
Dr Schuchat at a White House briefing on Monday said to the media saying “Most of what we’ve learned is not reassuring, “Everything we know about this virus seems to be scarier than we initially thought.”
According to CDC all the reported cases numbering 346 of Zika virus are associated with travel. of those 32 were in pregnant women and seven were sexually transmitted.
Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa are the places where virus is now being transmitted locally.
Initially President Barack Obama asked Congress for the grant of $1.5bn to combat virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci also said that it expected that in coming September initial trials for Zika Virus vaccines could be started, and depending on results of these trials, larger trials could begin in the start of 2017.
$589 left over grant for Ebola eradication were used to combat Zika.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases US needs more money to fight mosquitoes and to fund better research for vaccines and treatments.