Zika and Microcephaly and the Rio Olympics

[lynnifer]

I cannot imagine.

I say cancel the Olympics or have them somewhere else.

These kids will never show emotion, see or hear and require 24hr care. Kudos to the families that take that on.

[JamesMcM]

I would never congratulate someone on "taking that on", I don't think that's exactly fair for the sick child. Yet another tragic blight on our species that needs to be cured and eradicated, but won't sadly. We need to stop pissing and moaning about the 1% having all the money, and be more worried about everyone being equally healthy and able bodied, I think those 1 percentors taxes should go to research for treatments. That's equality, fact is most of us don't deserve to be billionaires it takes tremendous intelligence, creativity, responsibility etc. and often they are the face/ creator/ guide of something that had changed the world! Far more than just the ability to work hard 50+ hours a week! But literally everyone deserves to be able bodied, deserves to see, hear, to move to experience sensation and traverse this life independently by their own ability on their own accord, with dignity!

[lynnifer]

I'm a bit weird in that I'm pro-choice, but once here, need to be taken care of. I could never do it.

[Andy]

Nature's a bitch when she works to balance her progeny on the planet.

[triumph]

Recently read an article by a journalist who was born with microencephaly. She states not all of these children will have severe issues. She had treatment/therapy throughout her youth and now writes articles and blogs. Major funds and programs will be needed to meet this problem.
Thankfully, the scientists found the link and there are other known mosquito-borne viruses out there. Don't agree to cancel Olympics. There are already efforts to combat this by national health organizations to inform the public about best practices and Olympics will be included.
Mosquito control efforts are important everywhere.

[TomRL]

I don't agree about canceling the Olympics either. We've already got a couple cases here in Ohio and I think by the time the Olympics come around this virus is going to be pretty well spread globally.

[JamesMcM]

If this virus really is going to spread without a successful vaccine, If I caught the virus I would never bring a child into that kind of life. I've never plan on having children, but I really hope, a vaccine can be made quickly

[lynnifer]

Some of the athletes have expressed concern about attending the olympics. Can't say I blame them.

How can someone with microencephaly write articles! Perhaps my understanding of this ailment is incorrect ...

[triumph]

Lynnifer: from what little I've heard there is a "range" of impairment, maybe like autism. Important that any child effected gets massive treatment and support.

[NW-Will]

Pyriproxyfen and not Zika causing microcephaly in South America.

last weekend, the most powerful indicator yet that the microcephaly may have another cause altogether was announced by Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, as reported by the Washington Post. Colombian public health officials, stated Santos, have so far diagnosed 3,177 pregnant women with the Zika virus- but in no case had microcephaly been observed in the foetus.

Pyriproxyfen is a growth inhibitor of mosquito larvae, which alters the development process from larva to pupa to adult, thus generating malformations in developing mosquitoes and killing or disabling them. It acts as an insect juvenile hormone or juvenoid, and has the effect of inhibiting the development of adult insect characteristics (for example, wings and mature external genitalia) and reproductive development.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/new...rocephaly.html

http://www.gmwatch.org/news/latest-n...f-microcephaly

[lynnifer]

Oh gawd. Another thalidomide event. I remember them altering mosquitoes last year.

[NW-Will]

They are adding Pyriproxyfen to the water supply!!!

The Argentine Physicians believe that the best defence against Zika is "community-based actions". An example of such actions is featured in a BBC News report on the Dengue virus in El Salvador.A favourite breeding place for disease-carrying mosquitoes is storage containers of standing water. El Salvadorians have started keeping fish in the water containers, and the fish eat the mosquito larvae. Dengue has vanished along with the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. And so far, the locals don't have any Zika cases either.


Simple yet effective programmes like this are in danger of being neglected in Brazil in favour of the corporate-backed programmes of pesticide spraying and releasing GM mosquitoes. The latter is completely unproven and the former may be causing far more serious harm than the mosquitoes that are being targeted.