The government is sending $25 million immediately to health departments across the country and its territories to fight the Zika virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.

"These CDC funds will enable states and territories to strengthen their Zika preparedness and response plans,” says Dr. Stephen C. Redd, director of the agency's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. “Although the continental United States has not yet seen local transmission of the Zika virus, mosquito season is here, and states must continue to both work to prevent transmission and prepare for their first local case,” he added.
 
The money will be going to 53 state, cities and territorial health departments. The funding is effective immediately and can be used through June of next year.  All of the jurisdictions will have the funds by next week, the CDC said.

Selection of recipients for this funding  was based on the risk of local transmission as determined by the estimated range of the two Aedes mosquito species known to transmit Zika virus in the U.S., the history of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks and the size of population.

The funds can be used to rapidly identify and investigate a possible outbreak of Zika virus in the communities; help coordinate a response across all local agencies; and identify and connect families affected by Zika to community services. The funds can also be used to purchase preparedness resources like repellent, screens, and supplies for Zika prevention kids, the CDC said.

This Zika-specific funding is in addition to the emergency preparedness funding that the CDC has awarded. The agency awarded $567.5 million in cooperative agreements to 62 public health departments across the country to improve and sustain emergency preparedness of state and local public health systems. Individual departments will receive funds ranging from $320,000 to $38 million.

So far there have been no local transmissions of Zika reported in the U.S., but the number of cases of infection among pregnant women keeps climbing.  As of June 16, the CDC reported 265 cases of pregnant women on the U.S. mainland who have been infected with Zika, which typically involves relatively mild symptoms in most adults. However, it can cause devastating birth defects in babies that include microcephaly.