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The Zika Virus is triggering all sorts of fear in much of the warmer areas of south and central America, and recently spreading to the US via semen of a man who visited the area. (There are only 31 cases of the virus being found in the US to-date, all from travelers.)
The fear is caused by linkage to microcephaly birth defects, but so far the science behind that linkage is unproven.
The World Health Organization is becoming alarmed:
"The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty," WHO’s director general Dr. Margaret Chan said. "We need to get some answers quickly."
Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that can lead to life-threatening paralysis also seems to be linked with the Zika.
But this isn't the first outbreak of the Zika virus. Its been around for decades. And prior outbreaks did not exhibit any linkage to Microcephaly or Guillain-Barre.
[Continues.]
There are now articles starting to appear that link the microcephaly with something that has an actual scientific cause of birth defects. And these articles are pointing to another Monsanto product.
According to one news site the birth defects may be due to a chemical larvicide component used by the Brazilian Ministry of Health against Aedes (mosquitoes).
Original Portuguese article here.
“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. It is an endocrine disruptor and is teratogenic (causes birth defects).
“Malformations detected in thousands of children from pregnant women living in areas where the Brazilian state added pyriproxyfen to drinking water is not a coincidence, even though the Ministry of Health places a direct blame on Zika virus for this damage, while trying to ignore its responsibility and ruling out the hypothesis of direct and cumulative chemical damage caused by years of endocrine and immunological disruption of the affected population,” according to the report by Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday February 15 2016, @03:21PM
This is devastating news and it has to be confirmed or invalidated as soon as possible. I assume it won't take 9 months after stopping the addition in drinking water, but how long will it take? A couple more months of uncertainty/agony for these people?
BTW I think I had this virus about 15 years ago when I was in the tropics. I had the skin symptoms and a fever, a doctor told me it was a harmless virus that I would simply get rid of by myself in 7 days. He didn't tell me the name of the virus but he was right about it going away after a few days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 15 2016, @03:33PM
They are taking it out of the water and I think it is a safe bet that Brazilians will continue to make babies like rabbits. So, yeah, in about nine months from the day they stop putting this stuff in the water.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 15 2016, @04:51PM
I think you're being at least a littel overly optimistic. It hasn't been made clear to me at what point the stuff was added to the drinking water. I mean - there's no need to add the stuff at the intake pipes. There's no need to kill mosquitos in the processing plant. There aren't any mosquitos in the plumbing between the processing plant, and homes. I presume that the toxins were put into the reservoirs, where mosquitos were breeding.
So, I suspect that you're going to have steadily decreasing amounts of the poison over a period of several months, and maybe even a year. And, like the supply of toxin, the supply of microcephelic babies will decrease, steadily over a period of time. A year? Two years? Most certainly not as long as three years, but definitely more than 9 months.