Zika Virus and travel yes or no

[marki]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday night advised pregnant women to postpone travel to Mexico, Puerto Rico and parts of Central America and South America due to the presence of the Zika virus.

The CDC action was prompted by tests that found Zika, a mosquito-borne illness, in fetal and newborn tissue of Brazilian babies affected with microcephaly. The agency said additional studies are needed.

The advisory lists Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Out of an abundance of caution, pregnant women (are) advised to consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing, the CDC said.

Crazy stuff .....more and more mosquito born viruses are becoming prominent. But not only we have Multi resistant TB, Resistant Malaria, Ebola, and influenza causing global dramas. Anyway thought I would post this as an important reminder to avoid being exposed to mozzies when overseas. Ie lying on the beach sleeping after too much ethanol .......multiple bites will predispose to Dengue as well.

 

[marki]

Experts say the Zika virus that is spreading across South America has been found in Australian travellers returning from the region. The news comes as DFAT issues advice saying Australians should reconsider plans to travel to the 22 affected countries.

Nasty Stuff

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-...tralians-returning-from-south-america/7115568

 

[marki]

Zika virus spreading 'explosively', says World Health Organisation
WHO director-general Margaret Chan says it is ‘deeply concerning’ that virus linked to thousands of birth defects has now been detected in 22 countries

Zika virus spreading 'explosively', says World Health Organisation http://gu.com/p/4g825?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Getting worse and w

 

[juddles]

Sorry, but this is just "flavor of the month" stuff. The world media has a slot "latest fearsome disease" that has to be purged and refilled with something new every so often. It is now Zika's turn.

It is a very mild disease, has been around for a LONG time, and there is not yet any substantiated or significant link to "birth defects".

But the fact that it has a sexy new sounding name "Zika", and the concept of "birth defects" has such an emotional attachment, seems to ensure that this little topic will run some solid ground in the media before being de-throned by the next hype.

 

[juddles]

Continuing my rant (I live in Colombia and such scaremongering puts back their delicate and painstaking efforts to move from narco-terrorism to eco-tourism), I detest the ridiculous and scaremongering style that coverage of this is starting to get.

Zika has been around for ages - and will no doubt have been imported into Australia by many visitors to Africa over this time. But now that someone is testing for it it will be detected.

Most countries have always been Zika-free, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY NEVER TESTED FOR IT!! There are dozens of diseases far more evil. They just don't have the cool name or the novelty.....

 

[Pushka]

CDC has put out an alert for Zika. Why risk it until more is known.

 

[juddles]

Risk what? One disease?

 

[juddles]

The world still has all the old favorites - malaria, HIV, TB, yellow fever, car crashes, slavery, drink-spiking, bird flu, swine flu, corruption, tsunamis, etc etc etc. Zika is insignificant. But because it was in today's news, people think "why risk it".

I do not understand the logic.

 

[Pushka]

Clearly you have not been pregnant. Where even eating salad meats and soft cheeses are hazardous while every one else can safely eat it. Drink Alcohol. Take normal meds etc.

Zika is 'harmless' unless you are pregnant.

 

[marki]

Interesting discussion eye opening for sure thanks for writing both of you

 

[JohnK]

Sure the article is scare mongering but simply put it is still scary stuff.

 

[juddles]

Clearly you have not been pregnant. Where even eating salad meats and soft cheeses are hazardous while every one else can safely eat it. Drink Alcohol. Take normal meds etc.

Zika is 'harmless' unless you are pregnant.

1.- No, have never been pregnant - not sure what the comment is for??

2.- Yes, there are thousands and thousands of things that are a danger to pregnant people.

3.- Zika harmless "unless you are pregnant"? Who says Zika is dangerous to unborn babies? ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVE READ SOMETHING IN THE NEWS.

The whole basis for this media circus / scaremongering is a rumour / idea that floated in Brazil, which has been snatched up and run with.

The facts as they stand today:
- Zika has been around for ever.
- Zika started to be studied more recently, and testing revealed it is a widespread disease
- almost everyone who has Zika is unaware of it because it is so mild
- a region of Brazil has had an increase in reporting of microcephaly recently.
- someone decided to investigate if this could be related to Zika.
- this research has only just begun
- no findings have been made

So far they have investigated just a couple of dozen of the cases of microcepahly. In about half these cases the mother carried Zika. In the other half they did not. Two things start to be apparent from this immediately:

(a) The presence of Zika in those microcephaly cases in that area of jungle is roughly 50%, which just happens to be the same % as the presence of Zika in the general population in these areas - meaning there is no link!

(b) The rise in microcephaly cases has been dramatic, and that 50% of cases with Zika involvement can not explain the rise. So there is a dramatic rise in that region of (reported) microcephaly where Zika has NOT been involved! So there must be a cause for the rise which is not Zika.


As I mentioned above, the research is barely starting, but already it is not showing any link. But I suspect that people will continue to promote this notion just because it is flavor of the month.

 

[RooFlyer]

And of course there are the Olympics coming up, so "Our boys and girls in danger!!!!!" is already getting a run.

 

[defurax]

Juddles is right here. The scientific literature is very thin on Zika and microcephaly. This recent paper sums it up very well (especially last paragraph before conclusion: http://jgv.microbiologyresearch.org...00381.v1&mimeType=pdf&isFastTrackArticle=true)

 

[Mal]

Regardless of whether it is overhyped or not, it brings to the forefront Mosquito control, and many increased efforts will be made to control them.

This is not a bad thing due to the other diseases spread by mosquitoes (including Ross River, Yellow Fever, Malaria etc)

 

[Pushka]

I think it is suggesting the jury is hung pending further investigations. And one thing about any virus is that they mutate rapidly.

 

[amaroo]

Regardless of whether it is overhyped or not, it brings to the forefront Mosquito control, and many increased efforts will be made to control them.

This is not a bad thing due to the other diseases spread by mosquitoes (including Ross River, Yellow Fever, Malaria etc)

+ 1 nothing wrong with being informed.

 

[juddles]

...I think it is suggesting the jury is hung pending further investigations....

Pushka, I appreciate when people take precautions - that is a sensible thing. But in this case it is based on "bs".

This is not a case of the "jury being hung" - if you compare this to a court case, where we are at is the following:

- the court has not yet been convened
- no one has given any evidence yet
- someone in the media heard that a potential case may be possible, but reported it as though the mythical court case had in fact been tried
- everyone is running around sharing the dastardly "findings" of the mythical court case

 

[juddles]

+ 1 nothing wrong with being informed.

but really bad being misinformed

 

[amaroo]

but really bad being misinformed

Jeez, Juddles, looks like you've bet the house on the Columbian Tourism industry

LOL the news reads no worse than the headlines you read about being stung, maimed, eaten, killed by any number of things walking down George Street.