Zika: $54m funding gap stirs uncertainty

Uncertainty and a funding shortfall of nearly $54 million cloud the roadmap to getting out of the Zika epidemic, which has already seen total confirmed cases of neurological disorders climb to around 3,000 in Latin America. The World Health Organisation put out a call for some $58 million to aid response to Zika outbreak in […]

Uncertainty and a funding shortfall of nearly $54 million cloud the roadmap to getting out of the Zika epidemic, which has already seen total confirmed cases of neurological disorders climb to around 3,000 in Latin America.

The World Health Organisation put out a call for some $58 million to aid response to Zika outbreak in the region months ago, but so far contributions have only totalled $4 million, according to Dr Anthony Costello, WHO director for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.

US Congress blocked another $1.8 billion committed by US president Barack Obama, but the county is looking to recycle a few hundred millions thought to be leftover from Ebola response into Zika.

Analysts say national government are lukewarm about funding response because they “feel it is in America’s backyard.”

“We are in an epidemic where the end and our technical ability to respond is limited,” said Costello, at a roundtable with journalists at the 2016 Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen.

“Countries have to recognise there is a problem and respond to it. We do need to have a funding response, research response, a much bigger vector and emergency response.”

Prediction about Zika is difficult, because its spread through regions has been patchy rather than uniform.

The level of immunity the virus produces is still unknown and diagnostic tests are still being worked on.

In addition, the intensity of the infection differs geographically and it is uncertain whether control of the mosquito vector that carries the virus has worked out, Costello said.

Killing mosquitoes might reduce the vectors, he said, “but we don’t know how that will cut the rate of the virus.”

Studies are showing rates of infection in areas even after mosquitoes are killed off remains the same.

And diagnostic tools are needed to more than just identify the virus.

The virus disappears in about five days after first contact, but tests to show past infection are needed.

There is still no vaccine against the virus.

“We don’t know to what extent the next season is going to produce and we don’t know the economic consequences,” said Costello.