Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
From Ultrasounds To Speech Therapy: Zika's Long-Term Price Tag Incalculable
History buffs and infectious disease experts have already drawn links between the rubella outbreak in the 1960s and the current spread of Zika. But drugmakers today face greater regulatory hurdles, and the federal government has yet to dedicate funding to address the Zika epidemic. That means a vaccine and successful methods to stop transmission of the virus may be a long time coming — factors that affect how much the U.S. may end up spending on combating and dealing with the effects of the disease. (Muchmore, 7/20)
A Quebec City-based research team has received the green light to begin testing a Zika vaccine on humans in collaboration with U.S.-based partners. The researchers based at Universite Laval are the first in Canada to be authorized by Canada's federal health agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical tests. The university is one of three sites that hope to begin testing a vaccine for the mosquito-borne virus in the next few days. (7/20)
Florida health officials have trapped mosquitoes in an area of Miami-Dade County and are testing them for Zika to confirm whether a woman with the virus could be the first person infected directly by a mosquito bite in the continental United States. Florida's Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to questions about their investigation, but health officials said the case had no apparent connection to travel outside the country. (7/21)
Florida health department officials have been tight-lipped about the investigation into a possible locally-transmitted case of Zika virus in Miami-Dade County. The Florida Department of Health officials said the case currently under investigation is not travel-related but they haven’t gone into detail about what’s involved in the investigation itself. (Mack, 7/20)