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Zika Virus Officially Causes Rare Microcephaly Birth Defects, CDC Says (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday the Zika virus causes microcephaly and other birth defects. "This study marks a turning point in the Zika outbreak. It is now clear that the virus causes microcephaly," CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden said. The CDC previously said it was likely the virus in pregnant women was the cause of the rare birth defect that results in an underdeveloped brain and that more evidence and research were needed to conclusively say it is causal. "We started using criteria about a month ago to see which ones had been met and which ones had not been met. We wanted to do this in a systematic and calculated way," said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, lead author of the New England Journal of Medicine special report. There's was also no alternative explanation to account for the increase in these congenital defects among women who had the Zika virus during pregnancy. The CDC says they are not yet ready to conclude the virus causes Guillain-Barre syndrome. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported more than 1,000 cases of microcephaly and other fetal malformations believed to be associated with the Zika virus from six countries.
At the beginning it was all very fuzzy and cases very uncharacteristic for viruses of the same family, but the research that has been done in the last few months is admirable, it is now completely clear that, even if it was unexpected, Zika acts like its mild fever type of related virus in adults (like Dengue and Yellow Fever) but becomes much more like the neurocentric cousins of the family in embryos (like West Nile and Japanese Encephalitis). Anybody that is following the reports, even if only the titles, was expecting this conclusion from the CDC and WHO.
DDT is actually extremely safe. The president of Monsanto actually drank it during a press conference. It was fear mongering that got it pulled, not any sort of real science.
And thanks to the anti-DDT FUD, millions of people perished from polio in Argentina. All of these environmental actions always have unintended consequences.
I am still waiting for some information on why the Zika virus causes these defects. So far all that has been established is that they are linked. That isn't good enough to prove a vaccine is even the correct answer. I am not virologist or a neuroscientist or immunologist, or even a medical professional. Still for all the information I have got on it could be that an elevated presence of Zika anti-bodies causes birth defects!
While a vaccine is 'likely' to be the right solution and therefore should be worked on its entirely possible that all the issues are actually auto-immune triggered by Zika. If that proved to be the case given Zika is harmless most of the time to adults, a vaccination campaign might be exactly the wrong public health move.
Caution is needed here.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
We need to put screen doors in the wall on the southern border to keep the mosquitoes out.
And make Aedes aegypti pay for it.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You would think we'd at LEAST get some actual biological Zombies out of this. . .
I have an office in Singapore and I do spend part of my time in South East Asia
Zika is no stranger to South East Asia - and in fact, when Zika was first discovered in Uganda in the 1970's, a 'discovery' followed, testing human blood from other tropical regions all around the world and it was found that (back in the 1970's) that human blood collected in the South East Asian region already showed signs of Zika immunity
True, in the South East Asian region (from the Philippines to Thailand, from Indonesia to Vietnam), there were babies born with signs of microcephaly born from time to time - but because there were no 'sudden increase' of the number of babies born with microcephaly, there was no concerted effort looking for the microcephalic babies
In other words, the thousands of babies born with microcephaly in South American countries could largely be caused by the lack of natural immunity to the Zika virus of the people living there
Perhaps 100 or 200 years from now the number of 'Zike Babies' would drop, as more and more people acquired the immunity of the Zika virus via natural means
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I am not virologist or a neuroscientist or immunologist, or even a medical professional.
No need to mention that, t was obvious from the rest of your post. Certain viruses are able to attack stem cells, some of them cause miscarriages, some just damage the cell and cause severe defects. Google is your friend, anti-vaxxers are not your friend.
Hey guys! You need to watch out for SARS, H1N1, H151, mad cow, swine flu, Ebola, Zika, etc! It's really dangerous.
When there is a real dangerous pandemic the idiots who cry wolf at the WHO and media will cause the untold deaths of millions.
I have been waiting to hear a clear statement from CDC on this as well. Its highly relevant information for a lot of people considering traveling.
At least until the virus becomes more active in the Southern US, which it likely will anywhere. The carrier mosquito is present. Its also an STD but given how it presents no different than a cold in adults it would be pretty much impossible to try and prevent infected individuals form traveling here.
If the risk isn't mostly gone post removing from the infection, I would think it would demand a much more aggressive response in terms of pesticide use.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Replying to my own post!
They have updated the page.
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/pregna...
According to the last Q:A after the virus has cleared from the blood you appear to not be at elevated risk for birth defects.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
They're still trying to figure this sort of thing out. Likewise it is sexually transmissible from men to women but they don't really know for how long. Current recommendations are to use barrier prophylactics for 6 months, but they're just guessing. Once a vaccine is available it would be likely (although perhaps not certain) that being vaccinated and having occasional boosters would prevent any latent infection from blooming.
The simplest answer to your concern is that if everyone is vaccinated then the virus can't spread and then you don't have to worry about your suggested virally induced auto-immune syndrome. It should be noted that the mother's immune system cannot infiltrate to the fetus, although her antibodies can, so an autoimmune syndrome within the fetus is extremely unlikely. The reason the fetuses are affected more (by most any disease that can reach them) is because they have a poor immune response. Given its viral family it is most likely that the virus is directly attacking the fetal neural tissue.
It would be true if he had said "malaria"
It affects white people.
This does make me wonder if the CDC and the FDA will review the ban on DDT. Some of the original research causing its ban has been called into question, and it remains used very effectively to control malaria in many parts of the world.
Wait...what's wrong with a vaccination campaign regardless of whether or not it causes microcephaly? It would prevent the disease from making someone sick. I fail to see what is wrong with that. I'd be delighted to one day hear that we could vaccinate against every pathogen known to man.
I guess you don't understand the concept of investment.
.
During hard times stores like Walmart do better and stores like Bloomingdales do worse (making things very simple here)
Are making "money off of people's misfortunes" buy selling your Bloomingdales stock and buying Walmart? NO.
Then why is buying Monsanto (if it does indeed sell products that would help in Zika infected areas be an examples of "money off of people's misfortunes"
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Umm no Potsy it is not safe: "EPA states that DDT exposure damages the reproductive system and reduces reproductive success. These effects may cause developmental and reproductive toxicity"
Gotta love dumb-asses...
Caused by mosquito bite.
Yeah, DDT won't actively fly around seeking you out to bite you and poison you with it's toxic effects though. Not saying that environmental contamination might be more harmful, as I don't know and am too lazy to look it up, living in gulf coast Texas though I can assure you those little flying hypodermic needles certainly will.
Abortion is the only smart choicefor a woman who finds she's pregnant and positive for Zika at the same time.
It would be true if he had said "malaria"
Trouble wit DDT at base is that it is just another 'cide. While the tinfoil hat and chemtrail crowd hold it up as some sort of magic cure-all, we would have done is killed off birds, and insects would have developed resistance.
DDT isn't majick, folks.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If that's what makes you happy. The average pharma CEO only has 5 yachts.
i wonder why Columbia, the second biggest hotbed of Zika has no increase in birth defects.
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2016/04/zika-in-colombia-week-13.html
Tin Foil Hat Trigger:
also i still don't like that the area where Zika is prevalent in Brazil was putting pesticides (pyroproxifen) in the drinking water.
https://mauihawaiitheworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/zika-virus-controversy-is-it-a-scam/
Release those GMO mosquitos that eliminate the species spreading Zika
There isn't much money in preventing disease, but in parts of the world where healthcare is a job for the free market, this sort of thing is a political issue that attracts a lot of passionate people who shout at one another on FB and blogs. Big Pharma must secretly love those who oppose child vaccination campaigns and public healthcare provision.
"DDT is actually extremely safe."
It isn't overly toxic to humans with intermittent exposure, but its a far way from "extremely safe". It has been linked to miscarriage, certain cancers, birth defects, endocrine problems, etc though in pretty low rates and requiring moderate to heavy exposure. However that is not why its use was limited, it has significant environmental impacts, primarily being the thinning of egg shells in many bird populations resulting failed offspring (cracked/crushed eggs) and thinning of shells in many shelled marine organisms. Used reasonably it isn't all that bad, the problem is with morons who thing we should spray the stuff on wildlife habitats like it was water.
You might have been better off to buy stock in Oxitec if this current situation was your motivation.
Good. The fewer children in the world the better.
Children (especially this generation) are selfish entitled brats, just absolutely disgusting creatures. Fuck your special snowflake.
(I'm a teacher by the way. Maybe I less hate kids than I hate the way they are raised by their parents. But regardless, had a long day and need to blow off some steam.)
Where you live, maybe. Don't tar all of humanity with the same brush.
And as thats probably the USA guess what? They grow up to be selfish entitled brats. Your adults behave like gigantic toddlers.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Do you know how much money went into Ebola research? Really?
Nobody seems to have thought about this, but doesn't this new version of Zika mean the eventual extinction of all wild primate populations?