Discussion: Congenital birth defects and the Zika virus

[sharon sanders]

I am so mad....I will add comments later because what I think is not printable right now. I am glad that I publicly posted my family's decision process on this thread and that my daughter decided earlier this year to delay pregnancy.

As usual, money is more important than people apparently. Same ole thing.... *********.

[sharon sanders]

It is a very bad idea to conceal the neighborhood locations where active Zika transmission is occurring. It is bad public health and bad communication.

If this is being done to save the tourism industry - forget it. Counties that do not disclose the areas of active transmission risk the ENTIRE STATE OF FLORIDA being declared in travel warnings. This will lead to mental health problems - in addition to the Zika/microcephaly/GBS situation - when people are laid off from their jobs in the tourism and related industries.

If governments do not want people to "panic" they must be open and honest.

The above from August 31.


And now it is happening...Canada has basically banned travel to all areas of Florida by pregnant women, women who want to get pregnant, and their male partners.

Please see:

Qu?bec - Les femmes enceintes doivent maintenant ?viter l'ensemble de la Floride - Cette recommandation s'applique ?galement aux hommes

Canada: Zika - PHAC issues travel notice - pregnant women should consider postponing travel to all areas of Florida - August 9, 2016


I expect other countries will follow. This is to be expected when the credibility of local government officials slips.

This is going to be a very expensive lesson of what not to do in public health communication.

[Pathfinder]

...
The new study also shows that any therapy for Zika will have to focus on preventing infection, Adams Waldorf said. The damage to the fetus occurred so quickly after infection, within days, that there?s no window for intervention after the fact.

?It?s going to have to be a vaccine or a prophylactic,? she said.
...
For Adams Waldorf, who has been warning her pregnant patients about Zika for months, the experiment?s success only underscored her concerns.

?I had some insider knowledge that Zika virus can, so to speak, liquefy the fetal brain,? she said.
...
?U.S. citizens are not getting the message,? Adams Waldorf said. ?They don?t know how dangerous the epidemic is.?

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/seattle-scientists-first-to-show-monkey-model-of-zika-damage/

[sharon sanders]

Please see:

Florida’s Zika undercount hides extent of virus’ spread, experts say


A Huge Travesty.

Florida health officials respond:

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/united-states/us-guillain-barr%C3%A9-microcephaly-zika-virus-tracking/florida-ac/760243-florida%C2%92s-zika-undercount-hides-extent-of-virus%C2%92-spread-experts-say?p=760314#post760314

[sharon sanders]

In the interest of fairness we publish both sides of an issue.

I understand what the state is saying but I feel that the continuing emphasis of the 2 areas of local transmission (Wynwood & Miami Beach) gives a false sense of "safeness" in the other areas of the state.

The fact is that all persons in Florida are at risk for Zika. All residents and visitors should protect against mosquito bites in all areas of the state. This is good practice generally.

As I have been saying all year, our personal family response is to delay pregnancy even though Zika has not been identified as locally transmitted in our area.

The only treatment is prevention.


Disclosure: I am not a medical professional. I am not a mosquito expert (except for living among them in Central Florida for over 30 years). My family is not connected to the tourism industry.

[Pathfinder]

Doctor: ?Could be thousands? infected with Zika in South Florida

BY KATHLEEN WALTER MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH 2016

WEST PALM BEACH (CBS12) ? ...
...
Wellington-based Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious diseases specialist said, ?How do we really know how many are locally transmitted? It could be in the thousands. How do we know??
...
Bush said, ?We only know the people we test...

Dr. David Dodson, a West Palm Beach based infectious diseases specialist said, ?When we have known cases of Zika, we can probably say that there?s three to four times that many who have been infected with Zika and have not shown any symptoms.?
...

http://cbs12.com/news/local/doctor-could-be-thousands-infected-with-zika-in-south-florida

[Pathfinder]

...
It remains unclear how patient A was infected; however patient A was known to have had close contact (i.e. kissing and hugging) with the index patient while the index patient's viral load was found to be very high. Although it is not certain that these types of close contact were the source of transmission, family contacts should be aware that blood and body fluids of severely ill patients might be infectious. Given recognition of high levels of viremia during illness, it is essential that health care workers continue to apply standard precautions while caring for all patients, including those who might have Zika virus disease (3).

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6536e4.htm?s_cid=mm6536e4_w

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/united-states/us-guillain-barr%C3%A9-microcephaly-zika-virus-tracking/utah-ad/757184-us-cdc-media-statement-cdc-assisting-utah-investigation-of-zika-virus-infection-apparently-not-linked-to-travel-july-18-2016

[Pathfinder]

...
If the causal link between Zika virus infection during pregnancy and microcephaly is true, Zika virus is the cause of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and we should prepare for the epidemic of microcephaly to expand to all countries with current autochthonous Zika virus transmission and to those countries where transmission of the virus is likely to spread.38, 39

We conclude that the microcephaly epidemic is a result of congenital Zika virus infection. We recommend that the list of congenital infections normally referred to as TORCH (toxoplasmosis, others [syphilis, varicella-zoster, parvovirus B1], rubella, cytomegalovirus, and herpes) is renamed as TORCHZ, and that we prepare for a global epidemic of microcephaly and other manifestations of congenital Zika syndrome.
...

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/research-about-zika-virus/760520-association-between-zika-virus-infection-and-microcephaly-in-brazil-january-to-may-2016-preliminary-report-of-a-case-control-study-the-lancet-september-15-2016

[sharon sanders]

Please see:

Florida - Media report: Mayors say state told them to keep Zika mosquito sites secret - September 25, 2016


---------------------------------

I don;t know who to believe. At this time my daughter is still waiting to get pregnant and we all spray ourselves with repellent when we remember to do it. At this point I don't believe anything from any official. I think a prudent approach is to assume Zika mosquitoes are throughout most of Florida and to take precautions against them.

These are my personal opinions on this thread. I am not a medical doctor or a specialist in mosquitoes. I have lived in Central Florida for over 30 years.

Sad day. Apparently we are all on our own in a real health crisis. It appears local and state public health officials will point blame at each other at the expense of the population.

[Pathfinder]

The fact that the virus was found in 5 Aedes aeqypti mosquito samples in Miami Beach is worrying.

?Despite relentless efforts by the city and the county, this new discovery shows that the Zika threat continues to grow."

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/united-states/us-guillain-barr%C3%A9-microcephaly-zika-virus-tracking/florida-ac/760173-florida-another-mosquito-sample-tests-positive-for-zika-in-miami-dade

The CDC was not expecting to find the virus in mosquitoes:

From an earlier CDC briefing:

Transcript for CDC Telebriefing: Zika Virus Update - August 1
...
HELEN BRANSWELL: Hi. Thanks very much for taking my question. Dr. Frieden, you mentioned that the vector control efforts don't seem to be working as well as they ought to be. What is showing up in their traps? Mostly aedes aegypti? Is it anything else, and I don't think there's been any positive hits yet in terms of infected mosquitoes, and I have a follow-up question.

TOM FRIEDEN: Thank you. They are using traps specific for Aedes aegypti and they are catching mostly Aedes aegypti. As far as we know they've not had any positive mosquitoes. And we don't expect that. It?s kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack to get a positive mosquito. We generally find that for determining if there is local transmission, unfortunately, finding cases in people is much more sensitive than finding infections in mosquitoes.
...

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/t0801-zika-update.html

[Laidback Al]

Please see:

Florida - Media report: Mayors say state told them to keep Zika mosquito sites secret - September 25, 2016


---------------------------------

I don;t know who to believe. At this time my daughter is still waiting to get pregnant and we all spray ourselves with repellent when we remember to do it. At this point I don't believe anything from any official. I think a prudent approach is to assume Zika mosquitoes are throughout most of Florida and to take precautions against them.

These are my personal opinions on this thread. I am not a medical doctor or a specialist in mosquitoes. I have lived in Central Florida for over 30 years.

Sad day. Apparently we are all on our own in a real health crisis. It appears local and state public health officials will point blame at each other at the expense of the population.

In the past, FluTrackers has been critical of governments in Egypt, China, and Saudi Arabia for covering up or restricting access to information on emerging infectious diseases such as H5N1, H7N9, and MERS.

We now have to consider that the government in the state of Florida and public health officials are covering up or, at least, withholding information about the spread and distribution of the Zika virus. This is a local public health failure. How can help people make informed choices about protecting themselves from the Zika outbreak when information is delayed or suppressed?

While we have come to expect other countries around the world to be obtuse and lack transparency about emerging infectious diseases, to have it happen in the state of Florida is particularly infuriating.

If autochthonous Zika infections are found in other states in the U.S., we should hope that local public health officials and government executives will be more open and forthcoming about the spread of the disease in their state.

[sharon sanders]

Thanks Al. I agree. Florida and the US do not get a free pass here.

This issue goes to the very reason that FluTrackers exists. We have no financial incentives. We are not "owned".

In January of this year we started this thread. It is a discussion of some of the Zika events and studies that have developed for about about a year now.

I posted numerous times about living in Florida, which is a known aedes aegypti mosquito haven, and the potential risk of Zika to the unborn child. I have shared my family story.

Whatever the officials do in regard to public health threats, they can't take away our life experiences or our spirit. We have the ability to weigh the known facts and take action for our near ones.

My conscious is clear. I wonder how the local and/or state officials are going to sleep at night if they are withholding information.

I hope everyone who sees this thread visits the CDC site on Zika. link There is a lot of valuable information there.

If you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, then you and your partner need to seek medical advice regarding the pregnancy and your travel plans.

Zika is no joke and the effects can be devastatingly elusive. link

[Pathfinder]

Zika?s million-dollar question: Where are the birth defects?

GlobalPost
November 01, 2016 ? 5:30 PM EDT
By Will Carless
...
Tens of thousands of Zika cases have been confirmed or suspected in countries like Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua since late 2015. The infected have included thousands of pregnant women. But those infections have not led to a dramatic rise in reported birth defects like microcephaly, in which a baby develops an abnormally small head and brain.

This is confounding to researchers, who have suspected that Zika may lead to birth defects, especially based on Brazil's experience of the disease.

?Researchers are absolutely curious,? said Julie Fischer, co-director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University. ?It?s an enormous relief that the surge in microcephaly cases that was first noticed in northern Brazil has not spread everywhere that the Zika virus has been detected.?

Scientists are looking hard for answers. Their hypotheses range from "perhaps there have been more abortions in Colombia" to "a potential local Brazilian co-factor could have mixed with Zika to worsen the impacts."
...

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-11-01/zika-s-million-dollar-question-where-are-birth-defects

[Emily]

That's a good article, Pathfinder.

This week, Brazilian Health Ministry official Fatima Marinho told The Washington Post, ?We don?t believe that Zika is the only cause.?

Honest mistake there as far as initially overestimating Zika's impact, I'm sure. The hype in the U.S. and results from that...I'm not so sure that was honest.

[sharon sanders]

I hope that Zika does not always cause birth defects.

As far as hype goes, well, this is the age of the internet. Tricks and scams can be more easily seen. My daughter has put off pregnancy for a year over this scare. There are real life consequences to government(s) sponsored health information. It is not like anyone can hide many of devastating birth defects reported to have been caused by Zika.

We will see and everyone is watching. With trust of government at all time lows (probably 1%) I hope this has not been another lie - although I would be thrilled if the consequences of ZIka are much less than anticipated.