Zika Virus Unknowns Still Outnumber the Knowns

​Praising the quick public health response to Zika virus, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, also noted that "the unknowns of this disease still outnumber the known." Speaking at a subcommittee hearing on May 23, 2017, Representative Tim Murphy (R-PA) lauded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for quickly developing Zika virus diagnostic tools and researching vaccine candidates. Every state in the continental United States, with the exception of Alaska, has reported cases of Zika virus, Murphy said, adding that the actual number of U.S. infections and the long-term ramifications of infection with the virus remain unknown. A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that a lack of standardized case definition at the beginning of the outbreak complicated the collection of data.