[GoghGoner]

CNN is reporting on the Zika virus in Brazil. I bolded the last line. [not looking to start a multi-page thread on this and incite panic amount the PO.com readers ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zika_fever

As of November 2015, reports from the Brazilian Health Ministry alerted people to a previously unknown connection between the zika virus and cases of newborn microcephaly in Northeastern Brazil.[16][17][18] The Ministry later confirmed [19][20] the previously suspected connection between zika infection of pregnant women and newborn microcephaly, with at least 2,400 reported cases of microcephaly in the country this year as of 12 December 2015, and 29 fatalities.[10][21] According to a CNN report, Brazilian health officials were also recommending that parents consider putting off pregnancy due to the sharp increase in cases of microcephaly.[22]

[Newfie]

Related to malaria, no?

[Cog]

Yet another reason to build a border fence to keep South Americans out of the US.

[Tanada]

Related to malaria, no?

No. Malaria is caused by a parasitic microscopic animal that burrows into red blood cells where it then lays dormant for a period of time.

Dengue Fever is a virus like Zika Fever and is carried by the same kind of mosquito's.

[vox_mundi]

Yet another reason to build a border fence to keep South Americans out of the US.

Too late, it's already in Puerto Rico. And it's a virus carried by mosquitoes endemic to Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

Mosquitoes laugh at border fences and love the climate change and warm bodies that humans have provided.

[vox_mundi]

A virus linked to shrinking newborns’ brains is spreading rapidly beyond Brazil

Zika virus is spreading quickly. By October cases had been reported in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, Suriname, and Venezuela. The region to fall victim this week is Puerto Rico.

The ease of global travel today means the virus could potentially make an appearance anywhere in the world. There is also some evidence that suggests Zika can be passed from human-to-human through blood transfusions and also sex. The journal Emerging Infectious Diseases published a case study in 2011 of a scientist who visited Senegal and contracted the virus. A few weeks after he returned home to the U.S., the scientist’s wife also developed symptoms of the virus, even though she had not traveled with her husband to Senegal. However, she had been sexually intimate with him in the time that he had returned home.

There was also a report published February 2015 of a 44-year-old man in Tahiti diagnosed with Zika . Through laboratory tests, health care workers detected the virus in his semen several weeks after he had already recovered from an acute infection, and these levels were high enough for potential transmission through intercourse,

With no treatments or preventative medicine at hand, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s suggestion is to follow steps to prevent mosquito bites: carry insect-repellent creams, wear long sleeves and pants, sleep in air-conditioned rooms or behind windows with screens. (... become a nun)

Microcephaly cases with suspected links to Zika Virus rise to 3,174

The number of suspected cases has risen since the latest bulletin released by the Ministry last week, with the record of 2,975 suspected cases.

[vox_mundi]

That “baby-brain-shrinking virus” has made it to the US

Throughout 2015, a mosquito-borne virus has expanded its reach across Latin America. Now, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has confirmed at least eight cases of Zika virus in the US among residents returning from abroad.

There is as yet no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika. The US is home to two species of Aedes mosquito (A. aegypti and A. albopictus) that are thought to carry the virus.

[Shaved Monkey]

Tropical disease will spread as the weather changes.
We have dengue fever just north of us its only a matter of time that its starts heading south.
Councils in infected area run pretty good education and irradiation campaigns,I lived for a while a fair bit north of here in potential dengue land.
Lots of TV adds and brochures telling you what to do to reduce the risk
I imagine the same thing will happen as it spreads.
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/public-he ... efault.asp

if you look at the dengue map its already in parts of the US
http://www.healthmap.org/dengue/en/

[vox_mundi]

CDC considers travel warning for pregnant women due to Zika virus

The Centers for Disease Control is considering new guidelines for pregnant women traveling to areas where the Zika virus is present.

... "We now have an accumulating number of cases in babies from miscarriage or who were born with microcephaly with evidence of Zika," said Petersen.

"That suggests a stronger and stronger relationship of Zika and microcephaly."

The Zika virus is part of the flavivirus family, which contains the deadly yellow fever virus, as well as West Nile, chikungunya, and dengue. There is no vaccine to prevent it and no medicine to treat a Zika virus infection. It's transmitted when a mosquito bites an infected person, and then spreads the obtained virus by biting others.

[vox_mundi]

Hawaii Baby With Brain Damage Is First U.S. Case Tied to Zika Virus

The first case of brain damage linked to the Zika virus within the United States was reported on Friday in Hawaii.

The Hawaii State Department of Health said that a baby born in an Oahu hospital with microcephaly — an unusually small head and brain — had been infected with the Zika virus, which is believed to have caused the same damage in thousands of babies in Brazil in recent months. Since October, more than 3,500 have been reported there. The presence of the virus was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The child’s mother had lived in Brazil in May last year and probably was infected by a mosquito then, early in her pregnancy, the health department said. The virus presumably reached the embryo and damaged its developing brain.

“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn,” Dr. Sarah Park, Hawaii’s state epidemiologist, said in a statement. “This case further emphasizes the importance of the C.D.C. travel recommendations released today.”

Also on Friday, the C.D.C. recommended that pregnant women consider postponing travel to any countries or regions with active Zika virus transmission.

Those currently include 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries and territories: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The list of countries with transmission has been steadily growing; on Saturday, Barbados reported its first cases.

Nevertheless, Hawaii is undergoing an outbreak of dengue fever, and the same mosquitoes that transmit it also can transmit Zika.

A C.D.C. epidemiologist recently predicted that Zika would follow the same pattern that dengue has, with local transmission during hot weather in tropical parts of the country, including Florida, the Gulf Coast and Hawaii.

[KaiserJeep]

Zika is scary. My twin grandkids were sent home from daycare last week with RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), a virus that passes freely from one small child to another. They ended up in pediatric hospital on rubber sheets to bring down 104 degree fevers. They bounced back and are recovering. What a helpless feeling.

[vox_mundi]

Two Pregnant Women in Illinois Test Positive for Zika Virus

Two pregnant Illinois residents have tested positive for the Zika virus, prompting a warning from the Illinois Department of Public Health for anyone traveling abroad.

The two women recently traveled to countries where the Zika virus is found and physicians are monitoring their health and pregnancies, according to state health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel alert for people traveling to regions and countries where the Zika virus is found. The locations include Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico.

The CDC recommends pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where the Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

[dohboi]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health- ... 38970.html

While Zika infected mosquitoes have not been found in the U.S. yet, it’s just a matter of time before it happens. They’re being found in Puerto Rico and Mexico, so they’re right on our doorstep. I see this becoming a big issue in the not too distant future. We’re only making the world more hospitable to mosquitoes.

The mosquito-born disease has exploded in Brazil: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/growing-f ... h-defects/

It was already so bad there by the end of last year, officials advised women not to have babies!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/23/health/br ... y-warning/

[sidzepp]

Perhaps we can hope that Monsanto develops a safe pesticide to save us.

[vox_mundi]

See also zika-virus-t72175.html#p1290800

[Plantagenet]

This is a very unpleasant disease, and unfortunately the CDC seems to have dropped the ball on this one.

I don't know if they were too distracted by their efforts in Africa or what, but the CDC has been very late in issuing travel warnings about countries where ZIKA is widespread. It was only 4 days ago that they issued their first public statements---and they said they are just getting starting on ZIKA research

cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/t0116-zika-virus-travel

ZIKA is potentially a big threat to the US----the CDC has been very slow to start working on a vaccine for this disease.

[dohboi]

Thanks for the link, vox. I should have known that you'd be all over this one.

Yes, P, very unpleasant, indeed!

[Tanada]

Merged upon request.

[vox_mundi]

Zika virus likely to spread to southern US, experts predict

CDC and other experts say Zika transmission within the United States is inevitable.

"With the recent outbreaks in the Pacific Islands and South America, the number of Zika cases among travelers visiting or returning to the United States will likely increase," the CDC noted in comments accompanying a global map of Zika virus transmission. "These imported cases may result in local spread of the virus in some areas of the United States," the agency cautioned.

"There's a good chance we'll see it this coming summer, given what we saw with chikungunya two years ago," said Dawn Wesson, an associate professor of tropical medicine at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in New Orleans.

Chikungunya is another mosquito-borne illness that spread rapidly in the Caribbean and Central America before popping up in 2014 among non-travelers in Florida.

"I think that the southern Gulf Coast, South Florida and Southern California are probably all at risk for introduction, and Hawaii," Wesson said.

The CDC's warning coincides with reports that nearly 3,900 babies in Brazil have been born in the last year with microcephaly, a birth defect resulting in an abnormally small head that can cause developmental issues and even death.

Brazil Zika outbreak: More babies born with birth defects

Brazil says the number of babies born with microcephaly or abnormally small heads since October has now reached nearly 4,000.

The authorities there believe the increase is caused by an outbreak of Zika virus. Just 150 Brazilian babies were born with microcephaly in 2014.

Brazil's health ministry says there have been 3,893 suspected cases of microcephaly since October, when the authorities first noticed a surge, up from 3,500 in last week's report.

[careinke]

This is going to be very interesting to watch as things play out.

Young fertile women's babies being stricken for life, because mom got a mosquito bite. How many women, who are aware of the risks will take it? I hope not many.

The ripple effects will be huge. If you were a female Olympian, would you go to the Rio games? What about female spectators? Would you go if you were a female in child bearing age? Are the indigenous people going to continue having kids? Expats the same question?

Would you as a young female scientist travel to Panama to visit a cloud forest?

What will be the impact on the tourist industry including resorts, cruises, air transport? I can tell you, if my son and daughter in law were foolish enough to book a panama cruise right now, we would certainly be having a discussion about it.

When it hits the Southern US, then what? Is everybody in Florida going to stop having babies?

Conspiracy theory's will be coming out of the woodwork. Was this virus planted by the 1% to reduce the excess populations? Maybe an extremist environmental group unleashed it to depopulate the rainforest, so it can rebuild itself? Or the myth I will hold on to, Nature is fixing a problem...