WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate left town for the Fourth of July holiday without agreeing on legislation to fight the Zika virus.
If the federal funds are delayed much longer, health officials say, efforts to prepare for and combat the illness will be undermined.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that it has awarded Arkansas $308,000 earmarked for Zika prevention and response.
The state Health Department has applied for an additional $1.4 million in Zika funding, money it expects to receive if Congress passes the $1.1 billion package.
Officials hope the impasse is resolved soon so that the money is made available.
"I think it's important to understand that this funding request is needed and it's very time sensitive," Arkansas state epidemiologist Dirk Haselow said Friday.
Arkansans have already contracted the virus while traveling overseas and they've brought it home.
"We've tested 113 people; two-thirds are pregnant and five total have tested positive," Haselow said.
Officials aren't saying whether any of the five were pregnant.
As of Wednesday, 935 cases had been reported nationwide, according to the CDC. Another 2,026 cases had been detected in U.S. territories.
Most of those who are infected have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. But pregnant women who contract the virus are at risk; many give birth to babies suffering from microcephaly. Those infants have smaller-than-expected heads and their brains sometimes are not fully developed.
The condition is lifelong and the damage can be severe, affecting hearing, vision, speech and cognitive abilities.
The two types of mosquitoes that are carriers, aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus, already are found in Arkansas. One originated in Africa, the other in southeast Asia. Both species are especially bloodthirsty.
"These mosquitoes are different than many other mosquitoes in that they are aggressive biters," Haselow said. "They may bite five to 10 people at a single blood meal, so they can transmit infections much more readily than other mosquitoes."
Once they begin spreading the virus, it will be hard to stop it. Haselow said an epidemic phase begins in newly affected areas where mosquitoes are infected and a large proportion of the population is then exposed to Zika.
"If and when this virus comes to the United States, in the areas where we have these mosquitoes, there's a potential for it to rapidly transmit if established, and this money that we're asking for is how we intend to fight that, how we intend to make sure it does not become established in a local area," Haselow added.
Mosquitoes are already spreading the sickness in three U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The $1.4 million "would support a lot of activities related to surveillance of mosquitoes, improvement of mosquito control, outbreak control, traveler tracking, laboratory testing [and] what we call the pregnancy registry," he said, referring to a system that helps monitor pregnant women who have been exposed to Zika. "Lots of activity would be supported by that funding request and in the absence of that funding request we would be very hampered in our ability to respond to Zika.
"If it's too late, it's not going to help," he added.
On Capitol Hill, members of the Arkansas congressional delegation say they are ready to pass Zika legislation and blame Democrats for the holdup.
A $1.1 billion Zika package was derailed last week after Democrats objected to some of the contents.
The wording in the legislation, they said, would block Zika funds from going to Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico, a leading provider of birth control and abortion services.
They also rejected provisions temporarily easing environmental restrictions on pesticide spraying, one of the tools in the mosquito-control arsenal.
The White House had requested $1.9 billion and has threatened to veto the bill if it isn't revised.
Lawmakers have been debating Zika-related legislation for nearly two months, unable to reach a compromise as the health toll rises.
"It's a shame. The Democrats voted six weeks ago for essentially the same thing and have come back and said now that they're not going to vote for the funding," said Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark.. "The CDC has said that the funding is adequate, that this is all the money they can spend anyway for awhile, so there's simply no reason not to go forward."
The Rogers Republican accused Democrats of "playing politics" when they should be addressing the problem.
"I've got three grown daughters and understand the terrible situation that you'd be in if you were pregnant and obtained this virus," he said.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also blamed the opposition party for the stalemate.
"I'm surprised the Democrats, after so many months of saying that this is an emergency and we have to have funding, are now manufacturing reasons to oppose it. I'm not sure why they do that," he said.
"As someone who is a new father and maybe will be a father again in the future, I know it's deeply concerning to most Arkansans. The legislation we passed would give the government more than enough money for the remainder of the fiscal year to begin the process of trying to identify a vaccine, also trying to identify appropriate mosquito eradication efforts," he said.
Barring Democratic objections, the legislation could already have been on the president's desk, he said.
H.L. Moody, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said the GOP should stop the games.
"Republicans are playing politics with federal money to fight the Zika virus -- and blaming Democrats. Democrats have been working since February to get nearly $2 billion approved to fight Zika in the U.S. Funding the fight against this dangerous virus should not include controversial policy changes on contraception or pesticides. Democrats want a clean bill," he said in a written statement.
Conner Eldridge, a Democrat running against Boozman, said he wouldn't have left Washington without resolving the issue first.
"It's shameful that my opponent and his Washington colleagues skipped town without agreeing to fund legislation to combat the dangerous Zika virus. Here was yet another opportunity to come together on an issue everyone agrees should be addressed immediately, and instead of working together to find commonsense solutions, they whined and bickered, got nothing done, and then left for the comfort of their homes," he said in a written statement.
"Those fighting the Zika virus don't care if you are a Democrat or Republican -- they just need help. It's an embarrassment that Washington's dysfunction is preventing them from receiving that help," he added.
Metro on 07/05/2016