Zika Virus: A Case Study

Currently, America is faced with a new issue called the Zika Virus. Like malaria, this virus is carried by a vector, the mosquito, and is directly transmitted to a human. The population that is at a high risk of being infected with this disease is pregnant women. Yet there have been current cases that say Zika can be transmitted through sexual contact. This is currently a health policy issue because there is the lack of funding towards the Zika virus. Also, lawmakers need to address this issue in order to prevent a major epidemic in the United States. Zika has been an issue ever since 2015. During this year 3,600 people in the United States and U.S. territories contracted this virus. As of February 2016, the three major states or territories affected by this disease were Puerto Rico, Florida, and Hawaii. However, this issue has not been addressed even though it is reaching the end of 2016.

However, in July of 2016, Congress has yet to reach an agreement and planned to start funding Zika research and prevention until September of 2016. Instead of addressing the problems in July, this allowed the virus to spread even more. In order to reach an agreement, Congress should have used past outbreaks such as West Nile, and applied these prevention measures to Zika. Since Zika and West Nile have the same vectors, which are mosquitos, the same methods could be used for both diseases in order to address funding issues. State, tribal, local, and territorial governments have already planned for community readiness and engagement, day-to-day mosquito control, and the elimination of infected mosquito population to address vector-borne diseases, but the resources are lacking. The lack of resources is due to government leaders’ executive orders, proclamations, or emergency declarations that address public health issues that threaten the