Your Opinion: Understanding the Zika virus

Dear Editor:

Current discussions about how much money the federal government should borrow to study and do research on the Zika virus caused me to want a better understanding of the dangers posed by the virus.

The information below comes from the CDC web site. Most of it comes from the site http://www.cdc.gov/zika/index.html

All 544 cases of the Zika virus reported in the U.S. are travel related; not one person has contracted the virus from a mosquito bite in the U.S. In 10 of the cases the infected person had sex with someone who had traveled to a virus-prone area.

Most infected people won't even know they have the disease because they won't have any symptoms. People usually don't even get sick enough to go to the hospital. Typically the virus remains in the blood of an infected person for about a week. Once a person is infected it is likely that he/she is protected from future infections.

You can't become infected unless you travel outside the U.S, or have unprotected sex with a currently infectious person who has traveled to one of these nations.

There are 157 pregnant women in U.S. who have tested positive for the Zika virus. This number recently increased dramatically because previously the reported number only included pregnant women who had some type of symptoms of the disease. Only 73 of the women have reported clinical symptoms consistent with the Zika virus disease.

Obama has already diverted nearly $600 million dollars in funds that were left over from the Ebola scare. The House recently passed a $622 million Zika virus bill. The House bill requires spending cuts in other areas to pay for the cost of the bill, rather than just increasing the debt/deficit. The Senate will probably soon pass a $1.1 billion Zika virus bill. Obama wants $1.9 billion.

If 20,000 taxpayers were forced to pay an extra $1 in taxes for every hour they worked ($2,080/year) during their entire 45 year working lifetime, it wouldn't be enough to pay back even the principal on a $1.9 billion loan.