President Barack Obama will ask Congress for a whopping $1.8 billion in funds in a meeting that will take place today.
The emergency funds requested by Obama will be used to combat the Zika virus, which has already affected 26 countries and is predicted to spread rapidly over the coming months as mosquito activity increases.
The $1.8 billion will go towards vaccine research, education, and health care for low-income pregnant women in addition to being used to implement a mosquito control program.
The White House stated that part of the funds will be spent on “enhancing the ability of Zika-affected countries to better combat mosquitoes” in a bid to control the spreading virus.
Obama’s proposal includes $355 million in foreign aid to places most affected by the Zika virus, such as South America and the Caribbean. Obama told CBS This Morning:
“And so we are going to be putting up a legislative proposal to Congress to resource both the research on vaccines and diagnostics but also helping in terms of public health systems.”
The funding has been described as “an important step and needed measure,” as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently announced that the Emergency Operations Center has been on its highest level of activation since the start of the Zika outbreak. This is only the fourth time that the Center has ever been on this high level.
Much of Obama’s concern lies with the welfare of pregnant women as the Zika virus is suspected to cause microcephaly, a neurological disorder found in babies, with over 4,000 cases found n Brazil over the past few months alone.
In order to combat the spreading of the virus, part of the funds will be spent on house screens for “pregnant women who live in poverty” because, as Obama stated:
“What we now know, though, is that there appears to be some significant risk for pregnant women or women who are thinking about getting pregnant.”
Image by Photopin under this Creative Commons License.
