The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday a $10 million funding to four Florida universities for Zika virus research.
The grant will be used as a partnership between the University of Florida, the University of Miami, Florida International University, and the University of South Florida. The academies will study Zika and other viruses spread by mosquitoes.
Rhoel Dinglasan, a lead scholar at the University of Florida, told the Miami Herald that Florida is the rational choice for this new research center, which has been called the Southeast Regional Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases. He said this is since Florida is the entryway for mosquito-borne disease erupted in the U.S.
"There's so much undertaking within our state. That's not just Floridians, there's also crusade from other places into our state," he said to the Miami Herald. "Mosquitoes are well-traveled. They don't need a passport."
The first case of Zika in the U.S. was reported in Miami's Wynwood locality in July. Soon after the virus spread through other parts of Miami-Dade, which made exertions to speed up Zika studies. With the spare effort, new cases have reduced in South Florida and last month the last Zika zone was freed on Miami Beach.
The CDC said that with funds of $10 million, which is part of the $184 million funding exertions to defend against Zika, researchers at these Florida universities will be able to assess the most operative ways of mosquito control.
"This will give Florida the ability to assess new approaches to mosquito control that haven't been tried in the U.S. yet," said Matthew DeGennaro, a researcher at FIU who is part of the new center, to the Miami Herald. "The synchronization and the partnership and the money that is provided will, I think, will make Florida's answer to any mosquito-borne sickness better."
Though it is rare for major universities to join in this side by side of collaboration, researchers distinguish it is a race of the clock to avoid Zika from scattering further in Florida.
"I think the CDC is really making approximately unique happen here in Florida. The academic world is trying to answer to this calamity and I think that we can work together with mosquito control and these diverse groups," DeGennaro said to the Miami Herald.
The CDC findings will be used over a five-year period and the universities plot to use part of the money to train mosquito control employees and public health officials and biology students as well.
