The Senate approved a $1.1 billion funding for the fight against the Zika virus and its effects, a commitment made parallel on Wednesday to a stop-gap spending bill that also commits emergency funds for the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
The approvals and compromises made to reach them helped avoid a government shutdown, at least through Dec. 9, said the Los Angeles Times.
Approval for the federal funding came just a few days before a Sept. 30 deadline that required Senate leadership to come to a budget agreement, Stat News noted.
The $1.1 billion will go to Zika vaccine research and health care, specifically in southern states — like Florida and Puerto Rico — which were hit with the virus the worst, Stat News noted.
President Obama originally asked Congress for $1.9 billion to fight the deadly virus.
“We are pleased that Congress has put aside political games and finally provided this urgently needed funding to combat the Zika crisis,” said Dr. Willie Parker, chairman of Physicians for Reproductive Health.
“However, our work to protect those most at risk is just beginning,” Parker said. “Those already living with Zika and those most vulnerable, including the patients I see across the South, deserve compassion and access to the care they need without shame or stigma.”
Originally, Zika was said to be primarily transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito, International Business Times noted.
“The best protection from Zika virus is preventing mosquito bites. Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant and their sexual partners should take extra care to protect themselves from the bite of mosquitoes that transmit Zika,” advised the World Health Organization.
However, according to Fox News, this notion has been amplified based on new studies.
A recent case of the virus in Utah shows that the virus can also be spread by touching someone’s tears or sweat. This new study comes after a Utah resident contracted the virus after touching his dying father’s tears and sweat.
According to The Associated Press, the man’s father had 100,000 times the normal level of Zika, but it remains unclear as to how the father first got sick.
Dr. Sankar Swaminathan, chief of the infectious disease division at University of Utah Health Care, said the father, 73, was also battling prostate cancer prior to his death.
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