Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
Brazil says Zika virus outbreak worse than believe |
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Albert
Admin Joined: April 24 2006 Status: Offline Points: 47746 |
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Posted: February 01 2016 at 6:24pm |
Exclusive: Brazil says Zika virus outbreak worse than believed BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's top health official said on Monday that the Zika virus outbreak is proving to be worse than believed because most cases show no symptoms, but improved testing should allow the country to get a better grip on the burgeoning public health crisis. Health Minister Marcelo Castro told Reuters that Brazil will start mandatory reporting of cases by local governments next week when most states will have labs equipped to test for Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that has quickly spread through Latin America. The virus has no vaccine or cure at present. On Monday, the World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak to be a global emergency, a decision that should help fast-track international action and research priorities. In Brazil, believed to be the country hit hardest by Zika, the outbreak has sparked fear especially among pregnant women after local experts linked the virus to thousands of cases of microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, in newborns.
"Eighty percent of the people infected by Zika do not
develop significant symptoms. A large number of people have the virus
with no symptoms, so the situation is more serious that we can
imagine," Castro said in an interview. "Our big hope is finding a vaccine," he added. The Zika emergency comes at a particularly bad time for President Dilma Rousseff's unpopular government, adding a new burden to a public health system hit by budget cuts in the midst of a severe recession. It has also cast a shadow on Brazil's hosting of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. The Rousseff government said there was no chance the Games will be called due to the health scare. "We have to explain to those coming to Brazil, the athletes, that there is zero risk if you are not a pregnant woman," Rousseff's chief of staff Jaques Wagner told reporters. The Brazilian government suspects the virus was brought to Brazil during the 2014 soccer World Cup by a visitor from Africa or Oceania where Zika is endemic. An estimated 1.5 million Brazilians have caught Zika, a virus first detected in Africa in the 1947 and unknown in the Americas until it appeared in May in the poverty-stricken northeastern region of Brazil. The Pan-American health Organization said the virus has since spread to 24 countries and territories in the hemisphere. http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-brazils-zika-virus-outbreak-worse-believed-minister-173310077.html |
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Albert
Admin Joined: April 24 2006 Status: Offline Points: 47746 |
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This was actually my biggest concern, and this very thing could lead to a nasty pandemic and cause problems of biblical proportions. When you look at that statement and the panic behind it, that official is very concerned and seems certain that asymptomatic cases are infectious and can spread the virus i.e through sexual transmission, blood, etc... I was wondering if Asymptomatic silent carriers could spread the virus, and in this it sounds like they can. It was always suspect to me how 1 mill people in Brazil were bitten by mosquitoes so fast. This thing reeks of asymptomatic carriers spreading the virus. Further, the WHO and nobody has ever addressed that, or said they were not infectious. This could be a fairly big problem that they're not talking about. Calling it a big problem is probably the understatement of the century, if asymptomatic carries can spread this. |
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Diligent
Adviser Group Joined: April 11 2013 Status: Offline Points: 1300 |
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I 2nd your thought's, Albert.
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Albert, like I have said this does not kill people but it will make a huge generation of special needs children who will grow to special needs adults. This is not good for anyone. This is not a pandemic it is a modern black plague that will last for over 60 years with these poor affected children.
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Albert
Admin Joined: April 24 2006 Status: Offline Points: 47746 |
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I agree FM. If we're dealing with silent carriers with the 80% who are asymptomatic, we are in fact looking at an entire generation that would not be able to care for themselves. The future of humanity would be at stake if that's the case, unless people went to great lengths to be tested for the virus first before starting a family, which is possible, although maybe not practicable. It would depend on how sexually transmissible the virus is, but by the looks of the explosion of cases, doesn't look good.
They really need to determine with certainty if asymptomatic cases are infectious or not. Our future may depend on that. Given the choice I would have almost preferred to fight my way through an avian flu pandemic than that scenario. And the meek shall inherit the earth.... |
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Medclinician
V.I.P. Member Valued Member Since 2006 Joined: July 08 2009 Status: Offline Points: 23322 |
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I agree with you Albert. Zika may become a silent killer and as we have seen in the past if they are posting thousands we are probably at tens of thousands. I am sure the meek will inherit the Earth and after what for some of us had been through a trial by fire- aging - flu - life - we are a lot meeker. The neurological stuff would put us away. We won't have to worry about guns if people don't even know what one is and are hardly able to fire, much less use them to protect their homeland. The greatest weapon which could take any nation down as it did in War of the Worlds is a nasty hard to detect incurable virus. Medclinician |
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"not if but when" the original Medclinician
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