After months of discussion, Congress adjourned for the summer Thursday with no Zika legislation in sight.
Calling for an aggressive campaign against the mosquito-borne virus, New York U.S. Senator Charles Schumer stopped by Albany Medical Center in June. "By summertime, the two mosquitoes that can carry Zika, Aedes Egypti and Aedes Tiger, can get as far north as the Capital Region and even further north."
The Democrat’s warning apparently failed to impress his colleagues: lawmakers adjourned early for a seven-week recess, leaving Zika and other key bills on the floor. New York Congressman Eliot Engel, a Democrat whose 16th district includes parts of Westchester County, took to the floor to blast House Republicans: "Whether it's gun control or Flint Michigan or the Zika virus or anything, we can't get a vote."
The House and Senate won't meet again until after Labor Day. The timing couldn't be worse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first known case of a woman spreading the Zika virus to a man during unprotected sex was reported on Friday in New York City. The CDC says the case involved a non-pregnant woman in her 20s who reported she had unprotected sex with a male partner the day she returned to New York City from travel to an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission. Pregnant women who contract Zika are likely to give birth to babies with deformities and severe developmental issues.
Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science reporter with the New York Times and author of Zika: The Emerging Epidemic, says even though Congress didn’t authorize new fundings to counter Zika, research on the virus continues: "Congress did not pass a bill before it went into recess. That's a problem, but it won't stop the beginning stages of making vaccines. There are about 18 different vaccine candidates being worked on by various companies and research institutes. The NIH, the National Institutes of Health, is working on three, and one of them might be ready as early as September for safety testing."
This week the New York City Health Department announced that there had been 310 confirmed cases of Zika in the five boroughs.
Albany Medical Center CEO Jim Barba categorizes Zika as a "very pressing public health issue." "Zika, unlike some of the other terrible viruses with which we've dealt in the past, HIV, AIDS, etc., does not present in a person affected in a very serious way. So it may be that those who have been affected don't even know about it."
A recent study suggests Zika will be a threat in the U.S. for a few summers to come, and indicates this summer will likely be the worst in terms of the number of imported Zika cases.
