Obama to ask Congress for $1.8 billion to combat Zika virus

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will ask Congress for $1.8 billion to respond to the Zika virus abroad and prepare for it at home, officials said Monday.

"We must work aggressively to investigate these outbreaks, and mitigate, to the best extent possible, the spread of the virus," the administration said in a statement. It said it has not yet seen a case of Zika transmitted directly within the continental United States, but with the approach of spring and summer mosquito seasons, it wants to be prepared to fight the disease.

Hours later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that its emergency operations center in Atlanta was on its highest level of alert.

More than 300 CDC staff are working in the command center to monitor and coordinate the Zika response.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he did not expect a major outbreak in the United States, noting that similar viruses such as dengue fever have been controlled in certain regions of the country such as Texas and Florida. But he said: "We never assume the least. We always assume the worst."

The CDC money would be used to reduce transmission in the most vulnerable parts of the United States, including Puerto Rico, Hawaii and southern states such as Florida and Texas. Officials are also focusing on pregnant women and their babies, the groups at highest risk.

The mosquito-borne virus is suspected of being linked to a rare congenital condition known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with head and brain abnormalities.

In Brazil, the epicenter of the outbreak in the Americas, Zika has been linked to a surge of such cases.

CDC Director Tom Frieden said last week that the association between the virus and microcephaly has become stronger. So, too, has a link between Zika and Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can lead to paralysis in adults. Several South American countries have identified cases of that rare condition.