CMS Announces $66.1 Million to Support Zika Prevention & Treatment Services
CMS, 9 November 2016
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a funding opportunity providing up to $66.1 million available to support prevention activities and treatment services for health conditions related to the Zika virus. Congress authorized this funding in the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (P.L. 114-223). ‘This funding will accelerate efforts to provide access to important health care services for people, in particular pregnant women and children, living in areas with local active Zika transmission,’ Vikki Wachino, Deputy Administrator, CMS, Director CMCS. ‘Providing immediate assistance to areas affected by Zika is critical. Strong coordination by health departments is essential to address the prevention and treatment needs of people at risk from Zika.
Florida Votes to Release Millions of Zika-Fighting Mosquitos
Wired, 10 November 2016
On Tuesday night, Zika’s fate was on the ballot. A Florida Keys county elected to have British biotech company Oxitec release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes to combat the virus. In August, the Food and Drug Administration approved a field trial to test the modified mosquitoes’ ability to cull populations of Zika-carrying bugs. But the trial needed voter approval to proceed and approve they did, mostly.
Cuba is Waging an Organized, Intrusive War on Zika: It’s Working
STAT, 8 November 2016
HAVANA — The retired accountant went to her neighborhood health clinic one Friday last month for a scheduled blood pressure check. Doctors noticed 74-year-old Elsa Pérez Garcia’s red eyes and skin rash and immediately suspected Zika virus. The week before, her neighbor, Rosalina Coffigny Acosta, 52, had noticed a similar rash as well as joint pain, fatigue, and swelling in her cheeks. She walked two blocks to the same clinic — run, like all health services in Cuba, by the government.
Tests determined that Pérez Garcia had Zika and that Coffigny Acosta, along with her husband and 20-year-old son, had dengue, another mosquito-borne condition. Doctors hospitalized all of them for eight days in beds surrounded by nets to keep mosquitos from biting them and spreading their illness. Meanwhile, fumigation squads sprayed their homes and their neighbors.
In Cuba, the fight against mosquito-borne diseases is hyper-organized, intrusive, and remarkably effective. On disease trackers’ epidemic maps, Cuba is an island in a sea of Zika: Virtually the entire Caribbean has experienced widespread transmission of the virus, but global health officers say there has been only ‘sporadic’ spread in Cuba.
Web Design & Development by Endertech