CDC Awarding Texas More Than Half-Million Dollars To Fight Zika
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ATLANTA (CBSDFW.COM) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will award $563,000 to Texas to fight the Zika virus.
The award is Texas's share of about $60 million CDC is awarding to states, cities, and territories to support efforts to protect Americans from Zika virus disease and adverse health outcomes that can result from Zika infection, including the serious birth defect microcephaly, according to a CDC news release.
"Our local, state and territorial health departments are on the front lines in the fight against Zika, and though the necessary funding that is needed isn't yet available, we cannot wait to provide this essential support," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat."
The new funding will support activities to protect the health of the American public, especially pregnant women, through epidemiologic surveillance and investigation, strengthening laboratory capacity, and improving mosquito control and monitoring. It will also support participation in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry to monitor pregnant women with Zika and their infants, as well as Zika-related activities in U.S.-Mexico border states.
Zika virus spreads to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito.
In addition to the Zika funding, Texas will receive an additional $4 million through fiscal year 2016 funding for:
· Activities related to CDC's Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative, aimed at the growing threat of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, as well as activities to reduce healthcare-associated infections.
· Foodborne disease prevention and tracking. This includes increased support for the PulseNet and OutbreakNet systems and for the Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence including the new Northeast Regional Center, plus continued support for the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System.
· Establishing and maintaining local, state, and territorial health coordinators to track vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.
· Rapid detection of and response to the antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea threat in nine states.
· Building capacity for Advanced Molecular Detection, an emerging field that combines next-generation genomic sequencing with bioinformatics to more quickly identify and respond to disease outbreaks.
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