Obama seeks $1.8 billion to fight Zika virus

President Obama asked Congress on Monday for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to fight the Zika virus, The Associated Press reports. The money would be used to expand mosquito control programs, support low-income women, and develop a vaccine and diagnostic test.

The World Health Organization has declared the mosquito-borne virus a public health emergency. It's thought to be linked to a birth defect called microcephaly, which is marked by abnormally small heads.

So far, the U.S. has seen one case of domestic Zika virus transmission, in which a Texas patient had sex with someone who had returned from abroad.

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