Months of extremely high temperatures throughout the United States made the summer of 2016 one of the hottest summers on record. The summer may also be remembered for the excessive amounts of hot air generated in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. But most oppressive of all has been the failure of Congress to appropriate funds for Zika virus research, prevention, and treatment before it recessed for vacation.
Emergency physicians (EPs) in the United States are already dealing with frightened, symptomatic patients who may have been exposed to the Zika, dengue, or chikungunya viruses, transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. In the First EDition section of this issue, dermatologist Iris Z. Ahronowitz, MD, describes some of the similarities in the acute clinical presentations of those infections (see page 438). But among this group of related viruses, only Zika has been positively linked to microcephaly and severely underdeveloped, damaged brains in babies born to women who are infected during pregnancy. An increasing number of newborn babies severely affected by Zika virus in utero began appearing in South America in late 2015. By summer’s end (September 21, 2016), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports of Zika virus disease in the United States included over 3,300 travel-related cases, 43 locally acquired mosquito-borne cases, 28 sexually transmitted cases, and eight cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html). Most importantly, as of September 15, 2016, there have been 20 live-born infants with birth defects and five pregnancy losses with birth defects—numbers that do not reflect the outcomes of ongoing pregnancies.
The life expectancy of babies severely affected by Zika virus and the nature and extent of disability in less physically affected babies are presently unknown. But according to The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/29Y5CnR), estimates of the cost of caring for a severely affected Zika baby through adulthood run as high as $10 million or more, and as high a total price as we will pay for the congressional intransigence this summer, such cost estimates do not even consider the terrible human suffering these babies will experience or the anguish their parents may have for the rest of their lives.
Emergency physicians are all too familiar with the emotional and behavioral problems that complicate our efforts to manage acute medical problems of children and adults born with autism or Down syndrome when they present to the ED. Most such congenital illnesses are not preventable, but when one potentially is, delaying needed resources because of partisan politics is unconscionable.
By summer’s end, as the last of leftover Ebola dollars were being spent on Zika-related programs, Democrats and Republicans finally appeared to be reaching a consensus to provide $1.1 billion of the $1.9 billion originally requested by the President long before the long hot summer began. This sudden agreement may be driven by the importance both parties place on winning the Florida vote in the upcoming election. But whatever the reason, Zika funding now will help prevent untold hardships and suffering in the years to come. In the meantime, EPs will continue to evaluate, diagnose, counsel, and, hopefully someday soon, be able to treat all who come to our EDs with Zika infection.