Zika Virus Outbreak Updates: China Reports First Case

[WhiteTara]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/zika-virus-outbreak-updates-china-reports-case/story?id=36834601

The Zika virus outbreak continues spread throughout the Western Hemisphere, including in wide swaths of Central and South America, and concerns are growing for pregnant women because the mosquito-borne virus has been linked with a serious birth defect called microcephaly, characterized by an abnormally small head and brain.

China has reported its first diagnosis of the Zika virus in a man who traveled to Venezuela, according to the Associated Press.

The 34-year-old man was treated in Venezuela before returning through Hong Kong on Feb. 5. Authorities said it's unlikely the virus will spread due to low mosquito activity in the area, the AP reported.

This is going to be world wide in short order.

[womanofthehills]

1. Interesting fact

Pesticides also cause microcephaly and some studies think there could be a link.

I used to work at a childrens hospital in NM and we had babies born with this condition to mothers who worked in the agricultural fields in Mexico.

[WhiteTara]

2. wow. That is interesting

and they are spraying to beat the band in Brazil.

[womanofthehills]

3. I'm not sure of the validity of the first site but it makes you wonder

Still only a causal relationship - not proven yet!

Argentine and Brazilian doctors suspect mosquito insecticide as cause of microcephaly. (Also, in the area of Brazil where the outbreak is, they have been putting a pesticide in the water since 2014 to kill mosquito larvae .) That sounds healthy!

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2987137/argentine_and_brazilian_doctors_suspect_mosquito_insecticide_as_cause_of_microcephaly.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-would-it-take-to-prove-the-zika-microcephaly-link1/

From the World Health Org - “A causal relationship between Zika virus and birth malformations and neurological syndromes has not yet been established – this is an important point – but it is strongly suspected.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/28/zika-virus-spreading-explosively-says-world-health-organisation

[WhiteTara]

4. here's another article about it

Zika link to birth defects could be proven within weeks -WHO
http://in.reuters.com/article/health-zika-idINKCN0VL0TP

we should know more soon.

[progressoid]

5. Or not...

In the end, the most compelling point against pyriproxyfen's role in Brazil's health issues is this: Health officials in the state of Pernambuco, the so-called epicenter of microcephaly, say that in the three cities reporting the most cases — Recife, Jaboatao and Paulista — pyriproxyfen is not in use.

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/02/18/467138913/did-a-pesticide-cause-microcephaly-in-brazil-unlikely-say-experts