WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Zika appropriation legislation was defeated 52 to 46, the US Senate Republican Conference said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
In February, US President Barack Obama asked US Congress to pass a bill with $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus.
The current Zika outbreak began in Brazil in the spring of 2015. The virus is believed not to cause serious complications in healthy adults, but it can cause severe brain defects including microcephaly in newborns.
