WASHINGTON (AP) – The head of the government’s fight against the Zika virus says that “we are now essentially out of money” and warns that the country is “about to see a bunch of kids born with microcephaly” in the coming months.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden addressed a handful of reporters as lawmakers start to sort out a stopgap government funding bill that is being targeted to also carry long-delayed money to battle Zika.
Zika is spreading more widely in the U.S. and can not only cause microcephaly – in which babies are born with grave brain defects – but other problems that the country will face for decades.
Frieden said funding delays have slowed long-term studies of the disease and production of new tests for it.