More than forty states have now seen traveled-associated cases of Zika outbreak, prompting more government officials to seek greater funding for fighting the mosquito-borne virus.

As the congressional debate over funding plays out, an increasing number of health officials are shifting resources and recalibrating priorities in hopes of getting a better handle over the virus.

"Stealing money from myself" is how Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health describes having to pull funds from the agency's malaria, tuberculosis and influenza programs to now cover a Zika vaccine.

Researchers Insist More Funding Needed

Fauci insists the agency will surely need a cash infusion sometime during the month of June to keep the vaccine on schedule and recoup the nearly $20 million it has borrowed from other areas of funding.

"If we don't get something soon, then we're going to have a real problem," he said.

Exacerbating the situation all the more is the ever present danger of another outbreak of some sort coming along at the same time.

"It's Zika now, but three months from now, who knows what it might be?" said Dr. Tim Jones, state epidemiologist in Tennessee.

Already, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reallocated $44 million to Zika from emergency preparedness grants designed to aid state and local health departments with everything from flu outbreaks to hurricanes.

"You have to be careful when you take cuts from core infrastructure for the disease of the day," Tennessee's Jones said. "That's a risky way to do things."

Zika can spell dire consequences for pregnant women that become infected, causing devastating birth defects and even fetal deaths. The virus has been directly linked to microcephaly, a condition where infants are born with abnormally small heads and can be vulnerable to the potentially deadly temporary paralysis syndrome known as Guillain-Barre.

All of the 540 cases of the disease thus far diagnosed in the U.S. have involved travel to impacted areas or sex with pregnant infected women.

Obama Administration Pushing for More Funding

Back in February, the Obama administration requested $1.9 billion in emergency funding to fight the virus, a proposal that has drawn stern opposition from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Though the administration has already shifted nearly $600 million from funds for Ebola flare-ups in West Africa and other accounts to fund the fight against the virus, several states have also launched local assistance efforts.

In Florida, officials have opened a Zika information hotline that has fielded more than 1,700 calls since February. Not far away in New Orleans, the health department has started sending staffers into neighborhoods to educate residents about the virus, including ways to make their surroundings less mosquito-friendly as hurricane season fast approaches.

In Virginia, authorities earmarked about $700,000 remaining from a federal Ebola grant for the hiring of two mosquito biologists and a campaign where they distributed information about the disease to nearly half-million residents.

Meanwile, Georgia's Chatham County has one of the state's best-funded mosquito-control departments at $3.8 million and soon after news of the virus began to spread announced that state officials planned to send some mosquitoes to the University of Georgia for Zika testing.

Federal health officials here in the U.S. recently announced that doctors are now monitoring some 279 pregnant women with either confirmed or suspected cases of Zika.

Back in February, the World Health Organization officially declared Zika a global health emergency.

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