Pandora’s Box: How GM Mosquitos Could Have Caused the Zika Virus Outbreak

[Judi Lynn]

Pandora’s Box: How GM Mosquitos Could Have Caused the Zika Virus Outbreak
February 2, 2016
by Oliver Tickell

Since August 2015, a large number of babies in Northeast Brazil have been born with very small heads, a condition known as microcephaly, and with other serious malformations. 4,180 suspected cases have been reported.

Epidemiologists have found a convincing correlation between the incidence of the natal deformities and maternal infections with the Zika virus, first discovered in Uganda’s Zika Valley in 1947, which normally produces non-serious illness.

The correlation has been evidenced through the geographical distrubution of Zika infections and the wave of deformities. Zika virus has also been detected in the amniotic fluids and other tissues of the affected babies and their mothers.

This latter finding was recently reported by AS Oliveira Melo et al in a scientific paper published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, which noted evidence of intra-uterine infection. They also warn:

“As with other intrauterine infections, it is possible that the reported cases of microcephaly represent only the more severely affected children and that newborns with less severe disease, affecting not only the brain but also other organs, have not yet been diagnosed.”

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/02/pandoras-box-how-gm-mosquitos-could-have-caused-the-zika-virus-outbreak/

Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016143380

[Warpy]

1. It is extremely unlikely, Zika's a pretty old virus, identified in 1947

and probably around for far longer than that, predating any GM mosquitoes, critters that are altered to produce sterile males to cut their reproductive ability way down overall. Females are the ones that do the biting.

At this point, it's only been implicated in the explosion of microcephalic births, a definitive link hasn't been established nor has the mechanism been identified. Cases in Brazil prior to 2015 were 150 per year, +/- 20. Last year there were 3500+ cases.

Zika hasn't been a problem until now, the virus causing little to no illness in infected people, so the tests for it aren't particularly reliable and no vaccine has been in the works. If it is identified as the cause of the extreme spike in cases of microcephaly, you can bet there will be a crash program to produce such a vaccine.

There has also been an uptick of Guillain-Barré cases, tentatively linked to the use of aspirin or other NSAIDs like ibuprofen to reduce the aches and fever in people with more severe illness. If you live in the deep south and get the flu with red eyes and joint pain, treat it with Tylenol, instead.

Zika is expected to hit the Gulf states sometime this spring or early next summer.

[Marksman_91]

3. Do understand that the resident Marxists of this forum are keen to blame EVERYTHING on capitalism

And the US, of course. A cat's stuck up a tree? The CIA most likely put it there.

[Warpy]

4. Dearie, I'm one of the resident Marxists

albeit a low and lapsed one who prefers a messy, mixed, democratic system.

People who see conspiracies everywhere are on both ends of the political spectrum and always miss the real ones.

[Marksman_91]

5. I think that first sentence would probably make most people think you're not a Marxist

At least from my own definition. But that's just me, though.

[Nitram]

2. This sounds like a stretch to me.

I see no convincing explanation for why sterile male GM mosquitoes would be more likely to transmit the Zika virus than other mosquitoes.