Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Zika funds are running out, HHS Secretary Burwell tells Congress

Healthcare IT News: While congressional Democrats and Republicans squabble over who is to blame for a lack of funding to combat the Zika virus, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell now is notifying Congress that administration’s funds to fight Zika soon will run out, and that there is an “urgent need” for Congress to act.

Burwell yesterday sent a letter to congressional Republicans highlighting a number of Zika responses that will be weakened if Congress does not act quickly to offer new funds. Without new funds, for example, Burwell said there will be delays in the Phase II trials of a Zika vaccine. In this case, she explained that the administration shifted $47 million to the National Institutes of Health so the NIH could test the vaccine, but that those funds will dry up before August ends.

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