--- title: Zika Virus Likely to Spread in U.S. in June, Official Says description: The key to stopping the Zika virus from spreading in the U.S. this summer is “forceful preparation,” a top health official said Sunday canonical: https://time.com/4345249/zika-virus-us-forceful-preparation/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-23T19:30:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:40:35.972Z article:section: Health og:title: Zika Virus Likely to Spread in U.S. 'in the Next Month or So,' Official Says og:description: There are more than 500 cases of the Zika virus in the U.S. og:url: https://time.com/4345249/zika-virus-us-forceful-preparation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8631db003f482b9/69889474cf40a84459c43589/zika-usa-preparation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Health Workers Test And Spray For Mosquitos As Texas Prepares For Zika Virus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Zika Virus Likely to Spread in U.S. 'in the Next Month or So,' Official Says twitter:description: There are more than 500 cases of the Zika virus in the U.S. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8631db003f482b9/69889474cf40a84459c43589/zika-usa-preparation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Zika Virus Likely to Spread in U.S. 'in the Next Month or So,' Official Says  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan May 23, 2016 7:30 PM UTC  City environmental health specialists Gerardo Valdez (left), and Aaron Salazar transfer live mosquitos caught for testing in McAllen, Texas, on April 14, 2016. City environmental health specialists Gerardo Valdez (left), and Aaron Salazar transfer live mosquitos caught for testing in McAllen, Texas, on April 14, 2016.John Moore—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan May 23, 2016 7:30 PM UTC The [Zika virus](http://time.com/4322775/zika-symptoms-mosquito-virus/) will likely begin spreading in the U.S. “in the next month or so,” a top health official said Sunday, highlighting the need for “[forceful preparation](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dr-fauci-forceful-preparation-key-combatting-zika-spread/story?id=39281419).” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the federal government needs to ensure any local outbreaks of the disease don’t spread widely. “We already have Zika in the United States. But it is travel-related,” Fauci said during an appearance on ABC’s _This Week._ “The concern is that we will have local transmission,” he added. “In other words, people who get infected in the United States, get bitten by a mosquito, but who have never left the continental United States. We fully expect that that will happen as we get to the more robust mosquito season in the next month or so.” “We need to make sure that those local outbreaks don’t become sustained and don’t become disseminated,” Fauci said. “That’s the reason why we need to have a very, very forceful preparation right now before that happens.” There are more than 500 travel-related cases of the Zika virus in the U.S., according to [new figures](http://www.cdc.gov/zika/) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. None of them were locally transmitted by mosquitoes. President Obama has asked Congress to [allocate $1.9 billion](http://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/) in emergency funding to combat the spread of the virus. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4345249/zika-virus-us-forceful-preparation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4345249/zika-virus-us-forceful-preparation/"},"headline":"Zika Virus Likely to Spread in U.S. 'in the Next Month or So,' Official Says","datePublished":"2016-05-23T19:30:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:40:35.972Z","description":"There are more than 500 cases of the Zika virus in the U.S.","url":"https://time.com/4345249/zika-virus-us-forceful-preparation/","keywords":["Zika"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8631db003f482b9/69889474cf40a84459c43589/zika-usa-preparation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8631db003f482b9/69889474cf40a84459c43589/zika-usa-preparation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Health Workers Test And Spray For Mosquitos As Texas Prepares For Zika Virus","caption":"City environmental health specialists Gerardo Valdez (L), and Aaron Salazar transfer live mosquitos caught for testing in McAllen, Texas, on April 14, 2016.","creditText":"John Moore—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/zika/","name":"Zika"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4345249/zika-virus-us-forceful-preparation/","name":"Zika Virus Likely to Spread in U.S. 'in the Next Month or So,' Official Says"}}]}] ```