Medicaid will pay for insect repellent in Virginia to ward off Zika

Virginia’s Medicaid program has begun covering the cost of mosquito repellent to prevent Zika infection, the state health department said.

The program began covering repellent on Monday, the health department said.

It said that the virus can cause birth defects in babies of mothers were infected while pregnant. No vaccine exists to provide protection against the virus, so it is important to prevent bites from mosquitoes that carry it, the health department said.