Smith calls for travel warnings for countries with widespread Zika virus

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) led a congressional call on Monday for President Barack Obama to issue travel warnings for countries where the Zika virus is widespread.

Smith, the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, made the request in a letter to the president that was signed by 17 members of Congress.

“If Americans continue to believe it is safe to travel to countries where the Zika virus is rampant, more will return home with infections,” the letter said. “This increases the risks for all of us, whether we travel abroad or not, because if a mosquito bites a person who has carried Zika into the U.S., that mosquito can infect every other person it bites.”

Smith’s committee explored ways to combat Zika during a hearing last month. Witnesses testified that all confirmed cases in the United States had been travel related.

The World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern in February, which means that the situation was “serious, unusual or unexpected.”

“Despite these concerns, and the fact that there still remains much about the Zika virus that deserves study, the Centers for Disease Control has issued only level two travel alerts, which advise travelers only to ‘practice enhanced precautions,” the letter said. “It has not issued any Level Three warnings to ‘avoid nonessential travel,’ as it did with the Ebola virus in West Africa.”

U.S. Reps. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Frank Lucas (R-OK), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Randy Hultgren (R-TX), John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Steve Knight (R-CA) were among the members of Congress to sign the letter with Smith.