Not yet, but it will soon be.
Talking to reporters Aug. 30, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lamented the agency's dwindling funds, urging Congress to act swiftly when it convenes Sept. 6 after taking a seven-week break for the summer.
"The cupboard is bare," he said, noting that the fiscal year ends in September.
The CDC was given $222 million to spend for Zika but $197.3 million has already been spent, a lot of which went to Puerto Rico where a full-blown epidemic is underway.
Shortly after Frieden declared the CDC's predicament, three new cases of Zika infections were reported in Florida. There are now 46 infected in the state, all presumed to have been caused by mosquitoes. The Zika virus can also be spread through sexual contact.
The CDC has provided Florida about $35 million to combat the virus and a significant chunk of that amount went to fighting Zika-carrying mosquitoes. Thankfully, mosquito control in the state appears to be successful, with sprays combined to kill both larvae and adult mosquitoes. Traditionally, aerial spraying is not effective against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the virus, but results in Florida are a pleasant surprise.
But should Florida experience another outbreak soon, Frieden said the CDC will not be able to do much to help. The agency is so low on funds for the fight against Zika that it has actually dipped into funding for other programs, getting $44 million, for instance, from its emergency response budget.
President Barack Obama asked Congress back in February for $1.9 billion in emergency funding for the fight against Zika. Congress has not come to a decision because the Republicans and Democrats have not reached a compromise.
However, according to Don Stewart, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's deputy chief of staff, Republicans in the Senate are set to vote on a Zika package amounting $1.1 billion when Congress resumes next week.
Already, 16 infants have been born in the continental U.S. with Zika and Frieden said this number is likely to grow. The CDC is now tracking more than 1,000 pregnant women confirmed to be infected with the virus.
Anyone can get infected with Zika but infants are most susceptible to birth defects like microcephaly, problems with limb, vision and hearing development and major brain damage. The virus can also cause miscarriages and no way has been determined to reverse brain damage once it has occurred due to Zika.
But while the CDC is mostly concerned about the effects of Zika on infants, a study carried out by researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and the Rockefeller University showed that adults can be just as vulnerable to severe brain damage as the little ones.
