Researchers from the University of South Florida spoke Friday to state and local lawmakers, as well as the public, about the work the school is doing to fight the Zika virus.
Dr. Charles Lockwood is the Senior Vice President for USF Health and an expert in obstetrics and gynecology. While he hopes it's only hyperbole, he said he believes that Zika could be the greatest threat to babies in affected communities since polio.
"This is a virus that if it spreads rapidly, would spread across a completely non-immune population, and so it would affect a very large number of people in very short order."
Many of the USF experts urged federal lawmakers to vote on funds for Zika research.
Lockwood said as soon as that money is approved, USF could go ahead with plans to examine the aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus.
Currently, researchers at the university's mosquito labs are NOT looking at samples of those bugs.