Zika update: Congress doesn’t approve funding, first female-to-male transmission recorded

Members of Congress left Washington, D.C., for a seven-week recess without settling disputes over emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said has been documented spreading from a woman to a man for the first time.

Another vote in the Senate on a $1.1 billion proposal fell eight votes short of clearing a procedural hurdle, with Democrats withholding support because the majority of the money, $750 million, would come from cutting other HHS programs, including $540 million to help U.S. territories to set up health insurance exchanges. Those cuts, along with amendments Dems labeled as poison pills”, like one which would cut funding to Planned Parenthood.

“It’s clear that (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky) has been stringing us along,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said on the Senate floor. “He never had any intention of coming back to the negotiating table. Republicans have no desire to work with us to get a bipartisan Zika funding bill to the President—now, or any time in the future. It’s all been a charade.”

McConnell in turn accused the Democrats of “half-truths” about the bill, which he said wouldn’t be changed despite a veto threat from the White House because it was crafted in a conference committee with the House.

“It’s time to get back to reality,” McConnell said on the Senate floor July 15. “This is a serious crisis that demands serious solutions. It’s time for our friends to start worrying less about pleasing outside political groups and start worrying more about actually helping the Americans who are counting on us.”

According to The Hill, several Republican members of Congress sent a letter to President Barack Obama, accusing his administration of holding onto more than $400 million in funding originally designated to fight the 2014 Ebola outbreak on anti-Zika efforts. HHS responded that funding would be awarded through “the standard process” throughout July and August.

Efforts to combat Zika, a mosquito-borne virus which can be sexually transmitted and cause serious birth defects, will now receive no additional funding through Congress, as the House and Senate aren’t scheduled to be in session again until after Labor Day.

Just after the funding fight was left unsettled, the CDC has reported the first female-to-male sexual transmission of the Zika virus in New York. All previously documented cases where the virus had been spread through sexual contact had been male-to-female.

“CDC is currently updating recommendations for sexually active people in which the couple is not pregnant or concerned about pregnancy and for people who want to reduce personal risk of Zika infection through sex,” the agency said.

There are currently more than 4,200 confirmed cases of Zika in the U.S. and its territories, with more than 600 among pregnant women.