Bill Text: HI HCR164 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Zika Virus

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2016-04-08 - Referred to CPH/PSM, WAM. [HCR164 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-HCR164-Introduced.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

164

TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the President of the United States, Governor of Hawaii, Hawaii's congressional delegation, centers for disease control and prevention, and federal aviation administration to proactively work toward prevention and control of the zika Virus.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, the Zika virus is a flavivirus in the same family as dengue, West Nile, and yellow fever; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika virus was first isolated in 1947 from a sentinel primate, a Rhesus macaque, in the Zika forest of Uganda; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika virus is a disease that is spread to people primarily through the vectors of infected Aedes species mosquitoes such as the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika virus can also be transmitted sexually from males to females, and the virus has been found in the semen of at least one male over sixty days after apparent recovery from disease symptoms; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika virus was originally recognized as a minimally symptomatic illness characterized by symptoms that could include fever, headache, arthralgia, myalgia, maculopapular rash, and non-purulent conjunctivitis; and

 

     WHEREAS, not all who contract Zika will show symptoms; and

 

     WHEREAS, for many decades the Zika virus was recognized only in sporadic cases in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika virus was responsible for an outbreak in Yap Island in Micronesia in 2007, the first outbreak of any size; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika virus subsequently caused a large outbreak in French Polynesia involving more than twenty thousand cases, which resulted in approximately fifty cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome; and

 

     WHEREAS, the potential for Zika virus infection via blood transfusion was demonstrated in Tahiti where, using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing, 2.8 per cent of asymptomatic blood donors were found to be positive for the Zika virus; and

 

     WHEREAS, cases of the Zika virus have recently occurred in South America, with Brazil being the most heavily impacted area; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Zika epidemic in Brazil appears to have resulted in thousands of cases of fetal and birth abnormalities, with the most severe results being problems in brain development and destruction resulting in microcephaly, as well as possible abnormalities of the eyes and inner ears; and

 

     WHEREAS, the World Health Organization Director General held an emergency meeting with the organization's Emergency Committee on February 1, 2016, in response to the outbreak of the Zika virus in South America; and

 

     WHEREAS, the World Health Organization, including eighteen experts on the Zika virus, declared the Zika virus as a "Global Health Emergency"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the World Health Organization has stated that the level of concern for the Zika virus is high, as is the level of uncertainty; and

 

     WHEREAS, on February 8, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened its emergency operations center at Level 1 to prepare for and mitigate the Zika virus risk; and

 

     WHEREAS, as of March 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed over thirty-five countries and three United States territories with active Zika virus transmission; and

 

     WHEREAS, three of the countries or territories with active Zika virus transmission--American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Samoa--have non-stop direct flights to Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, as of March 3, 2016, the number of confirmed cases of the Zika virus in American Samoa has risen to ten, and two hundred seventy-one people are suspected of contracting the virus; and

 

     WHEREAS, in February 2016, there was at least one case of the Zika virus confirmed in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, where the Marshallese government recently declared a health emergency on the Zika virus; and

 

     WHEREAS, in February 2016, there were at least three cases of the Zika virus confirmed in Samoa; and

 

     WHEREAS, in March 2016, there were over one hundred cases of the Zika virus confirmed in Puerto Rico, where health experts are concerned that the cases of the Zika virus could exponentially increase to the hundreds of thousands; and

 

     WHEREAS, in March 2016, at least six cases of the Zika virus had been confirmed in the United States Virgin Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands' Department of Health expects the number of cases to rise; and

 

     WHEREAS, as a popular tourist destination and an international port, the State is at heightened risk and vulnerability to the Zika virus being transmitted through travelers; and

 

WHEREAS, there have already been one hundred fifty-three confirmed cases of Americans contracting the Zika virus while abroad and returning back to the United States with the virus, and nine of these cases affected pregnancies; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that twenty-eight out of the fifty states in the country have reported people contracting the Zika virus while abroad, of which four of the cases were reported in Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, Brazil, the epicenter of the current explosive outbreak of the Zika virus, has been impacted with economic, political, and social consequences due to the outbreak; and

 

     WHEREAS, as of March 2016, the estimated cases of the Zika infection in Brazil has risen to over one million cases and the number of microcephaly confirmed cases related to the Zika virus has risen to almost five thousand; and

 

     WHEREAS, there is an increased rate of risk of both Americans and foreigners contracting the Zika virus while attending the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and

 

WHEREAS, people who may contract the virus while attending the Olympics may spread the disease to other states and countries during travels to return home; and

 

WHEREAS, people exposed to the Zika virus while attending the Olympics with layover flights in Honolulu may expose Hawaii to the virus; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department of Health have confirmed that a child was born in Hawaii with microcephaly in 2016; and

 

WHEREAS, the child born with microcephaly is possibly linked to the Zika virus, as the mother contracted the virus in Brazil; and

 

     WHEREAS, the case of the baby born with microcephaly in Hawaii was immediately reported in multiple national newspaper outlets; and

 

WHEREAS, on March 4, 2016, an Oahu resident tested positive for the Zika virus after traveling to one of the pacific island nations where the virus is present; and

 

WHEREAS, the State has large populations of both Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, and while Aedes aegypti are mostly eradicated from other islands, the species has a major presence on Hawaii Island; and

 

     WHEREAS, these and related Aedes species of mosquitoes are thought to be the vectors for Zika transmission; and

 

WHEREAS, if the Zika virus is brought to and becomes epidemic in Hawaii, the State's health system will be overburdened, and the tourism-based economy will likely be severely impacted; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Governor has signed an emergency proclamation as a preventive measure against mosquito borne illnesses that include dengue fever and the Zika virus; and

 

     WHEREAS, there is currently an outbreak of dengue fever virus on Hawaii Island, which has resulted in over two hundred fifty confirmed cases; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized under the Public Health Service Act to take measures to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and between states; and

 

     WHEREAS, isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick, and quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick; and

 

     WHEREAS, federal isolation and quarantine are authorized by Executive Order of the United States President; and

 

     WHEREAS, federal isolation and quarantine are currently authorized for the communicable diseases cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers, severe acute respiratory syndromes, and flu that can cause a pandemic, and the United States President can revise this list by Executive Order; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, the Senate concurring, that the Governor is requested to seek funding for and mount an aggressive vector control effort to attack and hopefully eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito populations on Hawaii Island; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor and his administration is requested to make further efforts to limit the distribution and populations of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, also a competent vector for the Zika virus; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President of the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are requested to list the Zika virus as a communicable disease that may be isolated and quarantined; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Federal Aviation Administration is requested to promote Zika virus symptom awareness to airlines that travel from places where the Zika virus is circulating to the United States; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Federal Aviation Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urged to develop protocol for the potential isolation or quarantine of airline passengers exhibiting Zika virus symptoms upon arrival to the United States when returning from places where the Zika virus is circulating; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the State's congressional delegation is requested to pursue federal funding to fight the vectors of the Zika virus and to limit the spread of the disease by vectors or sexual transmission; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, Governor, Hawaii's Congressional delegation, Director of Health, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

Zika Virus

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