Energy and Commerce Committee requests Zika virus briefing

In a bipartisan reaction to the World Health Organization’s Zika emergency declaration, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has requested scientific briefings from the heads of multiple governmental agencies.

Committee members have asked Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Healt, to join the briefing.

“The Zika virus is an emerging public health threat linked to a rise in babies born with microcephaly, a very serious condition characterized by a small head and brain,” the bipartisan committee said in letters to the agency heads. “With Zika now circulating in 24 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Central and South America, there is increased concern that the virus could reach the continental U.S. According to a new study in the journal The Lancet, the Zika virus has the potential to spread across warmer and wetter parts of the Western hemisphere as mosquitoes pick up the virus from infected travelers and then spread the virus to other people. Infectious disease models estimate as many as 200 million people in the U.S. live in areas that might be conducive to the spread of Zika during summer months.”

Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Gene Green (D-TX), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO) also signed the letters.