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Feds Closer To Dx Distinguishing Zika From Dengue As HHS Tries To Plug Funding Gap

 
• By Sue Darcey

The US Department of Health and Human Services gave up on getting new funding from Congress in 2016 to fight Zika virus, and instead juggled its budget this week to throw $81m at the Zika vaccine effort. And while there has been headway on a test to differentiate Zika from Dengue, HHS Secretary Burwell told House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in an Aug. 11 letter that NIH currently lacks funds to support diagnostics and other Zika priorities.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has had to dig deep into its own budget, diverting dollars from cancer and diabetes research, to funnel $81m more to NIH and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to carry out work on a Zika virus vaccine, NIH's Anthony Fauci confirmed at an Aug. 11 briefing led by several government, state and local officials in Washington, DC. However, the funding supplement does not include additional needed dollars to support diagnostics development.

The secretary had been hoping for additional funding from Congress to fight the virus, but the House and Senate reached...

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