Zika Virus Discussion / Theories
Everyone must have heard about it. A uncureable disease that affects the new born of pregnant women and thats transferable through mosquitoes and sexual contact. So it first happend to be "innocent" for adults since it "passed" after a week and the patients were completely fine. Well... thats untill now...
Recent news (updated frequently):
24-4-2016
Scroll below to learn:
- how to create your own alerts for newsfeed
- what areas are considered to have "transmission" of zika
These get updated frequently by the CDC.
13-4-2016
Too busy with school 'n stuff;
scroll down and you can create your own google alerts of zika. Stay informed of updates daily.
Some noticiable stuff that happend:
new brain disease discovered; linked with zika (affects adults)
WHO / CDC / Health officals: "Scarier than we thought"
Obama funding vacine against zika
"The mosquito, which transmits Zika, is present in 30 states rather than 12 as previously thought..." Bad news for USA.
11-3-2016
Zika linked to fatal brain inflammation
The WHO reports that a vaccine for zika is still years away.
Paralyzing disorder cases spike in Zika affected countries (GBS cases reported amongst all ages by 9 different countries)
Puerto Rico becoming a breeding ground for the Zika virus in the U.S. The CDC director said that they'd be expecting hunderds of thousands of infected by year's end.
Nearly half of Americans mistakenly think zika is fatal (panic rises. source from survey)
Health officals warn that college students on spring break could cause outbreak. Transmission is possible when traveling to countries where zika is reported active. (Summer could be worse, in which I hope it wont. You might want to avoid festivals like tomorrowland or ultra music festival this year. I would be pretty pissed if it gets canceled though)
3-3-2016
Zika arrived in Slovakia
Google supports fight against Zika
(2-3-2016)
First evidence surfaces that Zika could cause a severe neurological disorder (Guillain-Barré syndrom "confirmed")
Zika arrived in Cuba
Many states in America have reported cases of zika. See illustrations below for areas with zika (source CDC)
(28-2-2016):
- "First" sexual transmitted case of zika in Europe. (France)
(27-2-2016):
reports of zika cases growing quickly in US: New zika cases across the United States. 107 confirmed cases from travelers, 40 confirmed locally acquired cases
Rio Olympics to charge teams for mosquito screens to prevent zika: New safety plans are supposed to prevent the spread of zika for the upcoming rio olympics in 2016
Automatically updated by CDC.
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html
(25-2-2016):
US research: 14 cases of zika transmitted through sexual contact
Australian hotel guest diagnosed with zika virus
Chinese health authority warns about zika virus spreading as weather warms. 4 confirmed cases of zika in china
Construction of the olypmic park in Rio de Janeiro is causing stagnant water pools nearby the site. Which makes a breeding spot for mosquitoes containing the zika virus (OLYMPIC GAMES LESS THAN 6 MONTHS AWAY)
(22-2-2016):
Patients with zika in Colombia has about 97 cases linked to Guillain-Barre (The zika virus remains for an average of one week in blood, then reported to hide in organs. This could explain why infected are experiencing paralysis by possible organ failure / modificaiton)
"Race on to develop working Zika vaccine": CDC is working together with ~15 companies for a vaccine against zika
$3.500.000.000 is the cost to combat the zika virus in latin america & caribean areas, announced by the global bank
CDC arrives in brazil to research zika. scientists wonder if microcephaly is linked to the zika virus
Research: amount of travelers to latin america & caribean significantly decreased due zika virus
Zika reported in 40 countries already.
(17-2-2016):
Zika arrived in Russia
More than 33 countries reported presence of zika virus
Mexico +80 reported cases (transmission was already confirmed)
(14-2-2016):
Hawaii declares state of emergency over Zika virus, dengue fever outbreak (250+ cases)
Mosquitoes arrived in the Netherlands, but not confirmed to carry the zika virus. (about 20+ reports of infected in the Netherlands from travelers)
Automatically updated by CDC.
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/active-countries.html
Apparently CDC doesnt update North America (USA, Canada), Europe, Asia and Australia, while there have been reports of transmission in China, Europe, US and more. United states: http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html
(9 Feb 2016)
- 27(+) countries reported zika virus
(7 Feb 2016)
- Scientists confirmed that the zika virus is active in saliva and urine. (making transmission possible)
(?-2016)
- Zika virus has been detected in patients saliva and urine. The CDC stated that it doesnt necessarily means that its transferable through bodily fluids. There was also one report where a patient got infected by a blood transfusion.
(?-2016)
- First deaths in Colombia caused by Zika virus (3 deceased), all 3 patients were spontaneously diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrom. A fatal muscle disease. Colombia reported that the patients were entirely paralysed before they deceased.
I want to hear your opinion, what do you think about it? I personally dislike to make early speculations about diseases such as "Ebola" or "end of the world" theories, but this sounds like a serious global threat.
Comments
I'm not trying to cause any panic or anything. Just want to bring people aware of the situation and would like to discuss this topic.
(for those that didnt know, this virus existed before and was known to be "isolated" or "erradicated". It caused a epidemic before.)
Makes me wonder...
How did it spread?
Is it natural? Or did humankind caused this?
With all these recently known symptoms and transmission mutations... one thing is sure - the disease is evolving rapidly.
According to news articles, the mosquitoes species (Aedes) also transmitt diseases like dengue and others. Mankind has had problems with these species for "centuries" and only "succeeded" in the 20th century. But they discontinued the program because the problem seemed to be gone (erradicated). Yet, a decade later, the species returned.
Moved:
Facts about the virus:
TRANSMISSION:
mosquitoes lay eggs in stagnant water
mosquitoes house nearby humans and aggresively sting on contact
existance of the mosquitoes across the globe
following types have confirmed to carry the zika virus: A. africanus, A. apicoargenteus, A. furcifer, A. hensilli, A. luteocephalus and A. vittatus.
Saliva and urine has been confirmed to be transmission factors
The zika virus also appears in the patients blood, thus making blood transmission possible (remains in the blood for about a week or so, then hides in "organs". symptoms only last for a week or two aswel.)
I dont know about you guys but i'm pretty scared about this for some reason
If you live in an area that's either in or near a Zika infected zone, you should take every reasonable step to eliminate stagnant pools of water. These create a breeding ground for Mosquitos.
Seems like another Ebola case to me.
"tranferable through... sexual contact."
The one day being unfuckable is an advantage...
No, I remember SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, MERS, Ebola, and we were all supposed to die from those long ago. Besides, even it if sounds like a cool cucumber and dill sauce, don't forget Zika still doesn't have its own meme...
Shit happens. If it spreads, it spreads. Nothing we can do but take measures to prevent it happening...or find a vaccine.
I'm more worried about the Birth Defects. If it becomes a major issue we may have to throw out our entire concept of infant euthanasia. Outside of Birth defects the decease in general isn't that serious, no worse than other mild deceases. As I've read most symptoms people get from Zika just last around a week, and most of those symptoms are no worse than a cold.
If the Birth defect issue becomes "true" and Zika is causing it... well ya... and for how easy to spreads from person to person and mosquito transmitting it. You can imagine all the mentally challenged children that may be born because of it, it will likely collapse our entire medical system. Hence why I said we may need to rethink out stance on euthanasia.
Eugenics, because that went well in the 1930s...
I think around 3000+ reported cases in Brazil with Pregnant women who had the virus, around 250 confirmed so far to suffer from head shrinkage of about 30% normal size... that is nearly 1 in 10 children confirmed to suffer from a birth defect by this Virus... of those reported, that is pretty serious I think. Unless it's just a fluke, but a child in Hawaii was already born like this and the mother was infected. Meaning it's very likely the version of the virus that is now spreading in Latin America is quite serious...
If the virus becomes as wide spread as the cold which it is starting to spread very fast, even my home State of Illinois has confirmed cases. If even 1 in a 100 children are born that way because of this Virus it would be a serious burden on society. It's a simple truth. Eugenics started in the 1930s because there were a lot of deceases that caused problems like this. Some have been cured, and others were fixed just by proper hygiene and awareness, causing most of them to become rare now days. But being this is a virus, and if it proves incurable like that of the common cold we may end up being insanely serious.
As I said, we "may" have to rethink our stance on it... for this one Virus. Until we can fix the problem anyways. No one likes the idea, no one ever does. Not even it's promoters, it is just sometimes in history it is necessary. It was practiced even before it was ever named..
If head-shrinkage is a criteria, we should just start euthanizing Trump supporters. All joking aside, if microcephaly is the standard, there are plenty of people with similar conditions who live nonetheless fruitful lives. People can have various conditions and still live happy and healthy lives. We wouldn't euthanize blind children would we? As to those living with microcephaly, Beetlejuice is one example, and we all know what functional members of society the wack pack are. Okay maybe not all joking aside, but still.
Yep,I rethought it, and after about 5 seconds of rethinking, the answer is still no.
Sorry but I don't think you understand how serious the decease really is. Blindness is a huge leap better. Being crippled in a wheel chair is a huge leap better. Missing an Arm or a Leg is a huge leap better. Being grossly deformed like the elephant man is a huge leap better. But we are taking about a disease that can even lead to the infant's death, a half life if they survive birth, and when they do guaranteed neurological issues as the disease causes the brain not to fully develop. Well likely hood being, they will be stuck in a home for the mentally disabled for their entire life, or a burden on their family/parents until they die. That isn't a normal happy life. We are not talking about a few people either, we are talking about the likelihood of hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of infants born like this at best... if it becomes as serious as some investigators are fearing. I mean Brazil as they pointed out saw a 300-400% increase in infants born like this..... imagine that world wide.
In the USA for example we already significantly cut funding for places that can house people like this because we can not afford it financially, and our government is likely unwilling to find funding to do so. Right now they're telling people just to "Not" have babies for a few years... lol
People will die, people will panic, I'll eat my pizza.
An interesting note, though this is just hearsay, is that the WHO told pregnant women to abort their fetuses.
Personally I don't much care. I think any responsible and informed person in an infected area will wait to have children, but as far as being scared of the virus? Na.
I think Zika Story Mode !
If we're lucky, it will just be another cold virus. Just with a new name, and likely some more sever symptoms for some. Until people start to grow a natural immunity to it. I'm hoping the birth defect this is just over inflated by worried parents in Brazil who only think their child has a abnormally size head. They're till trying to confirm all those reports, which I think is like 3800+ right now reported, but less then 300 confirmed, but when compared to 2014 that is like double the confirmed cases of the decease from the year before. As I said in my first post, it can be a fluke, or Zika can be causing it.
[Drops in.]
Alright, this is my jam, I have a lot of public "know-how" about viruses and I'm even going to school for virology. I admit, I haven't been looking into Zika very much due my sickness, but what I've gathered, it seems to be a sexually transmitted disease or through mosquitoes. It originated in some part of Africa and tends to effect pregnant women. Florida has currently called for "a health emergency" over it, but there doesn't seem to be much of a concern for it right now and that's likely because it holds little to no threat. Unless you're going to Brazil to see the Olympics in the near future, then stay safe.
That's about as much as I know, feel free to add on.
I think it's an absolutely grounded hypothesis to suggest that the birth deformities and the zika virus are causally related, which is why I said any responsible and informed individual would wait to have children. I just don't think it's a catastrophic event in the making, even with all the potentially deformed children and the couple people unlucky enough to die from it. I doubt it will even make a dent worthy of a single jot in a history book, such as the hundreds of "world ending" diseases before it.
Tropical areas are full of diseases and we rarely hear about them as they don't usually get out of there and for locals it's pretty normal to be careful.
What I mean, Western world public over-reacts soon as some disease spreads a bit that seems somewhat more "threatening." What I mean is that conspiracy theorists are total nut jobs who think that every dangerous disease is some human made thing instead of something that has been ravaging in a tropic a really really long time.
The truth is, the epidemic would likely end up hurting the third world the most where the poor countries are while the other parts of the world protect themselves (funny how it happens when a deadly disease gets to first world how suddenly there is funding and research to cure it or at least protect against it to make the virus stop spreading.)
Nowadays media keep scaring people because that is how they gain their views and make their advertisers etc happy while in some countries dealing with some very nasty diseases is a daily struggle and you can't even expect that some deadly snake doesn't reside in your home uninvited ready to jump at you (since you don't even have a luxury to have a house that is properly sealed against such threats.)
Some have made major dents in history. Though those were all life threatning deceases, well at their times life threatning. Like Infuenza, the last real oubreak of it happened right after World War I, in 1918 killed somewhere between 5-10% of the entire world population, more than both World Wars combined in less than 2 years. Zika is no Flu virus though. That being said, the flu is one of the deadliest virus in human history, but it's so common that we do not think much of it anymore.. outside of some people's yearly flu shots.
People say that it is a lab created disease, but like that doesn't make much sense.
Oh one of those "The Government did it" type deals. Always someone spreading those kind of rumors, tragically. lol
Personally. I think the virus has likely just evolved, that is what virus do. Even the flu constantly evolves/changes, vaccine's for the flu constantly has to be reworked to combat the flu's ever changing nature and immunity to vaccines. There are so many different evolutions of the flu that it isn't funny.
And how many outbreaks have been hailed as the coming disaster since the WWI influenza outbreak? Many. People always react the same way, and it's never been cause for alarm. H1N1, Ebola, Zika, the list goes on and on. So while people hide their wives and daughters, stockpile food and medicine, and try to shut down travel and trade, I'll continue not caring.
H1N1 is just a flu virus, same as the Spanish Flu from 1918. Flu virus are all dangerous, it can cause people to die from dehydration as it's almost impossible to keep liquids in a person's system. Ebola is very dangerous, always has been, but at least it doesn't spread as easily as the flu.
What I love about Ebola and Zika. Both came from deep jungle areas. It is 100% our fault that they're our problem now. But they're not as dangerous as the flu because the flu spreads so easily and can potentially kill. That is why people take the flu seriously, it's just we've been dealing with the flu for hundreds of years, and have vaccines for it.
Exactly, and they never made a disturbance worth mentioning.
The Zika virus originates from a mosquito called, "Aedes aegypti". Last year, this mosquito underwent genetic modifications by a British biotechnology company called, "Oxitec", whose goal is insect control. Field trials were conducted in the Cayman Islands, Brazil, and Panama. They claim their trials were successful and safe. But it makes me wonder. Has the Zika virus been created from their experiments?
From what I've read the virus has been known since the 1940s.
I just researched the Zika virus. The virus may have been made worse by the experiments. Reports of babies being born with shrunken heads seems to be a sudden and new thing related to it.
Well, I think it's important to remember that Ebola has never made it out of Africa in a big way, and if it wasn't for our fear and paranoia of it, the world health organization wouldn't be so stingy on keeping it under control. If such measures were not taken for Ebola which is very dangerous it likely would be all over the world. Zika for example, no one took it seriously so it spread across the entire tropical world from the pacific, africa and now south america, and is now spreading to North America and Europe...
So saying that, the fear and paranoia actually helps stop these diseases from becoming bigger threats. As governments and medical professionals take them more seriously.
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There probably weren't enough cases to establish a correlation.
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No, rational thought and actions based on just that make a difference. The public craze plays little role in the decisions of organizations tasked with the safeguard of populations. There are many examples of such organizations withholding information from a population to prevent panic while still working to prevent a certain outcome. No, panic does very little besides stain already strained minds with delusions of terror.
Scientists solution to the problem... Kill all the Mosquitoes.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/zika-british-team-say-they-have-a-remedy-for-the-virus-a6859046.html
Now you're thinking with science.
100 Years Later and across the entire world, memorials and museums dedicated to the genocide of the Mosquito.
So you don't like our "Protect the nature until it becomes inconvenient to us." policy?
Just joking.
Hmm? Just saying killing mosquito's is a near impossibility. They reproduce too easily, can lay eggs in any tiny spec of water, trying to control their population is near to impossible, and we likely kill more things that can not reproduce as easily as the mosquito in the process likely having massive impacts of local ecosystems doing it. Was picking fun at humanity's childish nature of "Killing" stuff always works mentality.
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Seems the child mortality rate is very high. With an undeveloped brain the babies seem to have a high chance of dying before even being born, or dying weeks/months after counting on how bad the brain is underdeveloped. This is beyond someone who is born with a mental illness. The brain is so underdeveloped in a lot of cases that the bodily functions fail and the child dies. autopsy was done on one child who died at birth from Zika, and the doctor said he never seen something so bad, brain didn't even have wrinkles.
Well shit
Speaking of Ebola. Two years ago when it was spreading, in my school whenever someone coughed somebody would yell out "EBOLA".