More than 3,100 pregnant women in Colombia infected with Zika virus, raising fears of spread

Well, this is not good news. I know we jokingly touched on this on other threads, but me thinks this virus is going to be a game changer.

No cure as of yet. I will be very interested in seeing if these poor souls come out of those wombs in tact and operational.

I remember the mosquito virus many years ago in the U.S. and how many were infected.... What says you ATS?

The president of Colombia said Saturday that more than 3,100 pregnant women in the country are infected with the mosquito-borne virus which has been linked to birth defects and has no vaccine or treatment.

Reuters reported that President Jaun Manuel Santos pointed out, however, that there has been no recorded cases of Zika-linked microcephaly, the birth defect that involves the fetus’ brain.

Meanwhile, Brazilian officials will soon decide whether to amend the South American nation's rigid procedures for sharing Zika samples, the Cabinet chief's spokeswoman said Friday, as officials announced that they were sending a set of samples to U.S. researchers amid complaints of hoarding.

The developments came on the heels of an Associated Press report earlier this week that revealed that international health officials were frustrated at Brazil's refusal to share enough viral samples and other information to answer the most worrying question about the outbreak: Whether the disease is truly causing a spike in babies born with abnormally small heads?

L. I. N. K.

a reply to: ReadLeader

Even if they don't have small heads the babies can still have health issues I saw somewhere yesterday. I think the Washington post.
The disease isn't a killer and otherwise healthy adults will be ok if they are infected but the unborn are at risk for lifelong health issues.

It's time to wage a global war on the mosquito. The little vampires have no necessary position in the food chain or any other aspect of life . Wipe out the diseases they carry along with them. Malaria, dengue fever, possibly Ebola.

I sure hope there are no mosquito rights advocates on here.

a reply to: Sillyolme

Yes. It is worthy of keeping a cognitive eye ball on. After all its man made.....


Thanks for posting

I say mosquetoes love me and whatever the CIA has engineered to be transmitted by the little buggers, I will probably contract..

a reply to: ReadLeader

a reply to: CharlesT

I don't get alot of mosquito bites, I'm American Indian for starters (don't know how much that has to do with it ) but I also consume copious amounts of garlic

They do not like me

originally posted by: Sillyolme
It's time to wage a global war on the mosquito. The little vampires have no necessary position in the food chain or any other aspect of life . Wipe out the diseases they carry along with them. Malaria, dengue fever, possibly Ebola.

I sure hope there are no mosquito rights advocates on here.

They're working on it, they're trying to modify some mosquitos to make them only able to progenate male mosquitos, apparently it can cause a population crash in 6 generations because of lack of females.

The scientists introduced the genetically modified mosquitoes to five caged wild-type mosquito populations. In four of the five cages, this eliminated the entire population within six generations, because of the lack of females. The hope is that if this could be replicated in the wild, this would ultimately cause the malaria-carrying mosquito population to crash.

www3.imperial.ac.uk...

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

That is a very interesting article. Thanks for sharing - who would have known? The X cromisome seems to becoming more and more important as we evolve.

Thanks for posting!

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

Let's hope it's not like the war on drugs where the drugs won.


GMO mosquitoes. That's genetic modifications I can get behind.

originally posted by: ReadLeader
a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

That is a very interesting article. Thanks for sharing - who would have known? The X cromisome seems to becoming more and more important as we evolve.

Thanks for posting!

Yeah I stumbled across that fact (but not that article, that was just one of the first on google I found to source my statement) when I was reading a tidbit about malaria not too long ago. Apparently it's possible (and maybe even likely) that malaria has killed 50% of all humans that have ever lived (approx 107 billion total, so around 53.5 billion death toll estimated). Crazy!

Various scientists and scientific journals, including Nature and National Geographic, have theorized that malaria may have killed around or above half of all humans who have ever lived.

en.wikipedia.org...

Edit: Of course, we could never know the true damage done by malaria, especially today as it mostly affects children before they can reproduce. It's pretty much impossible for me to guess what the population and death toll would be if that wasn't the case.

Edit 2: sorry for off-topic/tangent posts lol

Is it mutating? How and when did this thing jump answer evolve.? I don't know much about the virus. Was it always this way?

Is it just me, or did this virus very suddenly "rear it's head" in greater numbers? Not even suggesting anything conspiracy-wise, i realise it' s not a new unheard of virus- just seems odd how suddenly there's this seemingly rather sharp rise in people infected with a rather obscure virus.

What I want to know is what the main stream media is going to push on this? After the Super Bowl, of course...since it's way more interesting than this issue(sarcasm).

Will this bring about a surge in abortions?
Who is going to pay to raise these babies?...if abortions are not an option? This is only perpetrating poverty into further poverty.(i'm sure everyone knows this argument well).

Is it torture on the family and the suffering child?..Mercy?

Will this promote a surge in stem cell research, which has helped mankind?...and could possibly be used for studies in preventive occurrence?

Why has this Zika virus surged Now? Why not years ago?...is this a man-made doing?

I think theses to be fair questions.

Regards,

originally posted by: BelowLowAnnouncement

originally posted by: Sillyolme
It's time to wage a global war on the mosquito. The little vampires have no necessary position in the food chain or any other aspect of life . Wipe out the diseases they carry along with them. Malaria, dengue fever, possibly Ebola.

I sure hope there are no mosquito rights advocates on here.

They're working on it, they're trying to modify some mosquitos to make them only able to progenate male mosquitos, apparently it can cause a population crash in 6 generations because of lack of females.

The scientists introduced the genetically modified mosquitoes to five caged wild-type mosquito populations. In four of the five cages, this eliminated the entire population within six generations, because of the lack of females. The hope is that if this could be replicated in the wild, this would ultimately cause the malaria-carrying mosquito population to crash.

www3.imperial.ac.uk...

Unfortunately, this is incorrect. I'm sure there are other species that consume mosquitoes but some variants of bats feed exclusively on mosquitoes. I relate the insect as basically the same as all the various types of microscopic organisms in the oceans that are the bottom of the food chain but are no less important in sustaining the entire ecosystem throughout, including us.

originally posted by: CharlesT

originally posted by: BelowLowAnnouncement

originally posted by: Sillyolme
It's time to wage a global war on the mosquito. The little vampires have no necessary position in the food chain or any other aspect of life . Wipe out the diseases they carry along with them. Malaria, dengue fever, possibly Ebola.

I sure hope there are no mosquito rights advocates on here.

They're working on it, they're trying to modify some mosquitos to make them only able to progenate male mosquitos, apparently it can cause a population crash in 6 generations because of lack of females.

The scientists introduced the genetically modified mosquitoes to five caged wild-type mosquito populations. In four of the five cages, this eliminated the entire population within six generations, because of the lack of females. The hope is that if this could be replicated in the wild, this would ultimately cause the malaria-carrying mosquito population to crash.

www3.imperial.ac.uk...

Unfortunately, this is incorrect. I'm sure there are other species that consume mosquitoes but some variants of bats feed exclusively on mosquitoes. I relate the insect as basically the same as all the various types of microscopic organisms in the oceans that are the bottom of the food chain but are no less important in sustaining the entire ecosystem throughout, including us.

Which part do you find to be incorrect? You didn't really specify, you just gave information about ecosystems as though you assumed scientists had not considered them. I assure you they are working on it, the study itself done by scientists from Imperial College London can be found here: www.nature.com... - are you saying this fake?

GM Mosquitoes have already been tested and released in the wild in Brazil, Malaysia and the Cayman Islands in order to combat dengue.

Scientists in Brazil say an experiment to reduce populations of the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, by releasing millions of genetically modified (GM) insects into the wild, is working.

More than ten million modified male mosquitoes were released in the city of Juazeiro, a city of 288,000 people, over a period of time starting a year ago.

www.scidev.net...

So yeah, I'm not sure which part you find to be incorrect. You may not agree with it, but what I said is true and happening.

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

I may have not been entirely clear but I just know where science has tried to manipulate the environment through well intended objectives but failed to fully realize the full ramifications of what they inadvertently accomplished. The end result of some of these scientific projects impacted the environment in a basically irreversible result destructive to the species native to the environment they were conducting their experiments in. Take the Asian Carp for instance. Lakes around the nation were experiencing problems with moss accumulation that impacted the recreational activities provided so they introduced the Asian Carp to try to control the moss, "seaweed", but failed to realize that the fish had no natural predator and the Carp populations exploded to the point of crowding out the native fish species. The end result was the need to conduct massive fish kills, that was not selective in the types of fish killed, to try to eradicate the Carp populations. In the process they also killed off all native species. At some point they finally realized they could drop lake levels sufficiently during the winter months to expose the moss to the winter weather and kill it out thereby eliminating the food source of the invasive species they previously introduced.

Fortunately, they were eventually able to rectify their mistake but I just fear they sometimes leap before they look and create circumstances that are undo-able.



Although this species was not deliberately released into the environment here, Zebra Muscles were inadvertently transported beyond their natural habitat and into US waters and are a major problem now. They are now infesting virtually every major water source across the entire eastern US with no hope of getting rid of them. They are crowding out native species as well.

There are quite a few stories such as this but I lack the initiative to document them now.

I'll just post this link. about invasive species infestations.

Fish and Aquatic Conservation

www.fws.gov...

I have no proof but I have often wondered just how the Aids virus suddenly appeared in Africa and eventually spread across the globe. My unproven theory is that, because of highly restrictive regulations concerning viral experimentation here in the US, scientists moved their research to Africa where restrictions were virtually nonexistent, developed a highly communicable strain of virus and accidentally, or purposely, let it escape their lab. Maybe even, like some believe, the same happened with the Ebola virus. Some people believe it was research initiated and funded by the US military for biological weapons research and they either accidentally let it get away from them or intentionally released it into the population to see just how effective it could be as a weapon. Weather this is fact or not, I really couldn't say but my attitude is that I surely would not put it past them to do something like this. They have certainly killed scores of innocent people in other ways over the last 10 to 20 years.

Huh... Just seen a new report of a confirmed case in Ohio.

This is the first I've heard of anything in the U.S.

I wonder if the virus would only affect mother's if infected at pregnancy or if it is a lifelong infection, to affect all possible pregnancies?

Luckily mosquitoes and most insects for that matter seem to avoid me. My blood must be toxic

And of course you know it's only the female mosquitoes that bite...