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The Zika virus has been known for quite some time, but it gained notoriety recently due to its possible linkage to birth defects.
Science News has a summary report on Zika virus:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/special-report-heres-what-we-know-about-zika
A report on the studies of its possible linkage to microcephaly, a birth defect of babies with undersized and underdeveloped brains:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-zika-became-prime-suspect-microcephaly-mystery
In short, studies are continuing, evidence is mounting, but still not quite a confirmation.
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Art is a jealous mistress.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 29 2016, @01:17PM
Has anybody mentioned that Monsanto introduced pyriproxyfen to the water supply of the countries where Zika is prevalent just a couple of years ago? This chemical was introduced to kill insect larvae. Guess what? Nobody ever tested it on humans (or worse, Monsanto decided to test it on poor brown people). Now we are finding a correlation with children being born with brain defects?
Who knew? That introducing a poison to drinking water which is used to kill mosquitoes would cause brain defects when that same water is drank by humans?
Zika has been around for 50 years. It started in Africa, moved to Asia, and then went to South America with the World Cup in 2014. NO OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD has Zika been "linked" to microcephaly. It was only after Monsanto introduced this poison to the drinking water that we have brain defects. Hmmm. I think I might see what's really going on here. As a matter of fact, doctors in Argentina have also debunked the link of Zika and raise the point of the pyriproxyfen in drinking water.
http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/12/larvicide-cause-not-zika/ [ecowatch.com]
http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/zika-or-insecticide-pyriproxyfen-behind-microcephaly-cases/ [toolsforfreedom.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 29 2016, @03:04PM
The virus was in Brazil before the World Cup and pyriproxyfen is not associated with microcephaly. There has also been virus isolated directly from the CNS.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-experts-dismiss-claims-larvicide-linked-to-microcephaly/ [cbsnews.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 29 2016, @03:37PM
You still never answered the questions: why doesn't Zika cause microcephaly in other countries? And why did microcephaly only start after pyriproxyfen was added to the drinking water?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 29 2016, @05:06PM
Brazil has a large Zika naive population while other countries have had Zika for a while. It looks like acute Zika virus infection during fetal development is what is causing the problem.
Microcephaly isn't only occurring in areas with Pyriproxyfen.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Tuesday March 29 2016, @07:20PM
Are you the same person who made this same claim last time this came up? I went looking for evidence to substantiate your claim, and what I found was that everywhere Zitka is associated with neural abnormalities. This makes it causing microcephaly quite plausible. It's not an inevitable effect, so it probably depends on exactly what stage of the pregnacy the infection occurs in, and on how severe a case the infection is. Also most people who catch Zitka have minor symptoms, minor enough that it often isn't reported. This would make tieing the cause to the result difficult.
My guess is that this is an effect of Zitka that has always been present, it just hasn't been noticed. Detecting it depends on good public health records and lots of statistical correlation. And being able to test for residual antibodies. Etc. Things that have only recently started to become widely available.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by gidds on Thursday March 31 2016, @10:30AM
According to Snopes [snopes.com]:
[sig redacted]