Sen. Lamar Alexander Urges HHS to Leverage Tools to Help Combat Zika Virus

Healthcare Informatics: Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), well known in health IT circles, has written a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Sylvia Mathews Burwell expressing concern about the rapidly spreading Zika virus.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika, spread to people through mosquito bites, a global public health emergency, putting in the same category as Ebola. The Zika virus is currently most common in South America, and the infection has been linked to cases of microcephaly, in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains. There have been around 4,000 reported cases of microcephaly in Brazil alone since October, according to news media reports.

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