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from the invest-in-mosquito-nets-and-DEET dept.
New research has found that over 2 billion people live in parts of the world where the Zika virus can spread via mosquitoes:
More than two billion people live in parts of the world where the Zika virus can spread, detailed maps published in the journal eLife show. The Zika virus, which is spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, triggered a global health emergency this year. Last week the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the virus causes severe birth defects.
The latest research showed mapping Zika was more complex than simply defining where the mosquito can survive. One of the researchers, Dr Oliver Brady from the University of Oxford, told the BBC: "These are the first maps to come out that really use the data we have for Zika - earlier maps were based on Zika being like dengue or chikungunya. "We are the first to add the very precise geographic and environmental conditions data we have on Zika." By learning where Zika could thrive the researchers could then predict where else may be affected. The researchers confirmed that large areas of South America, the focus of the current outbreak, are susceptible.
To put that in perspective, a recent estimate states: "The world population (the total number of living humans on Earth) was 7.349 billion as of July 1, 2015 according to the medium fertility estimate by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. "
Related:
El Salvador Advises Against Pregnancy until 2018 over Zika Virus Birth Defect Fears
World Health Organization to Convene Emergency Meeting for Zika Virus
WHO Calls Zika Virus Outbreak an International Health Emergency
First U.S. Zika Virus Transmission Reported, Likely via Sex Rather than Mosquito Bite
Maybe “It’s Not the Zika Virus”
Pope Francis's Plane Reports Laser Incident
Zika Virus and Birth Defects
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday April 21 2016, @10:09PM
So, we have a new virus that threatens to render people incapable of reproducing effectively, and primarily targets the poorest, tropical regions of the world, where it's going to be damnably difficult to stamp out. Am I the only one to think this might be some mad scientist's idea of population control?
I mean we're assuming it's just that these folks have never been exposed before to acquire immunity, and in a generation at worst it will cease to be an issue, but what would it take to make sure any immunity is only temporary?
At the very least it seems poised to motivate a large swath of the world's fastest-growing populations to get serious about making reproductive control socially acceptable a serious priority.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday April 21 2016, @10:10PM
It doesn't render them incapable of reproducing. It makes babies who will have miserable lives.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday April 21 2016, @10:20PM
So, we have a new virus that threatens to render people incapable of reproducing effectively
There's a qualifier in there ikanreed.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by ikanreed on Thursday April 21 2016, @10:24PM
I don't know. People born without brains seem pretty effective at posting on soylentnews.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @11:10PM
Case in point [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @11:11PM
Sheesh, bit reactive there.... won't really work too well as population control, just increase the number of disabled people.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @11:11PM
Well, turns out he kan't.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday April 22 2016, @12:17AM
nature has never needed our help to create scary and insidious diseases.
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Friday April 22 2016, @02:30AM
Disease and famine has been the way nature keeps a population balance for perhaps 500 million years? No news.
What is news is our desire and capability to get rid of horrific diseases.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday April 22 2016, @04:17AM
And yet that hasn't stopped militaries the world over from trying to give it a helping hand.