Trying to get jump on Zika preparations with money in limbo

Zika preparation involves a bit of all three as federal, state and local health officials try to get a jump on the mosquito-borne virus while Congress haggles over how much money they really need.

"Stealing money from myself" is how Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health describes raiding his agency's malaria, tuberculosis and influenza programs to fund a Zika vaccine.

Yet with funding pleas unanswered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted $44 million to Zika from emergency preparedness grants that help state and local health departments with crises from flu outbreaks to hurricanes.

Zika can cause devastating birth defects and fetal death if pregnant women become infected.

—New Orleans' health department has begun sending staffers into neighborhoods to educate residents about Zika and advise them on making their yards less mosquito-friendly — workers also preparing for hurricane season.

—Virginia took about $700,000 remaining from a federal Ebola grant to hire two mosquito biologists, pay for some testing of mosquitoes and travelers, and educate the public, including plans to hang information on 450,000 doors.

The state is spending $2 million in federal emergency preparedness money on public awareness but can't estimate how much more it needs, in part because mosquito control, like in many states, is funded almost entirely at the county and local level.