Poll - how bad will Zika virus be?

What's your assessment of the growing Zika outbreak?

This will be real nightmarish scenario when we see the destroyed families from this.   Remember, these babies are deformed AND with brain damage.  That's a double blow.   This is a really bad situation.  Sadly,  I would choose abortion before I bring a kid into the world like that.   That's just the sick reality to this thing and people should grasp the harsh reality of these choices coming up.    This one is d*mn near evil. 

Hi Willobybrat, go ahead and try to vote again.  I enabled the feature for multiple votes.  My apologies for changing that on you JD, but I always check the box for multiple votes for this purpose. 

There will be thousands maybe a million babies born with small heads and brains. Not good.

The real question is, what is the rate of mycrophaly? It could be so low that people eventually stop caring

I voted "It will spread globally but cause only limited outbreaks" because I'm not sure it'll have the same affect in many other parts of the world as it has in the Americas. I suspect that their mosquito problem is far worse than ours and that will play a significant role. If we look at Malaria, that sickened 234 million people and killed 438,000 in 2015, and yet we rarely hear of cases in the West. It's clearly a huge problem in the third world having killed twice as many people last year alone as the Swine Flu pandemic - and that's after a 60% drop in cases since 2000 thanks to eradication programs. Why the difference?
My biggest worry is whether the virus can jump from Aedes aegypti to other species of biting insect. We now have Asian Tiger mosquitoes in much of the US, and as mentioned by Techno and WillobyBrat, midges (known elsewhere as no-see-ums and sand flies) are extremely prevalent in many places around the world. The impact of Zika showing up in either of those is still a big unknown and quite possibly a game changer.
The incidence of microcephaly is tragic, especially given the rise in cases and the impact on the families affected. This early in the outbreak, we're still guessing how many of the cases are caused by Zika, but it looks like the number may be downgraded considerably if a recent Washington Post article is correct. That said, it's still something to be extremely concerned about for anyone that's pregnant, and they'd be wise to take every available precaution.
In the absence of treatments and a vaccine, I do believe that we should start getting used to the idea of it being around for the foreseeable future, and plan accordingly when we're at risk of being bitten. Much like West Nile virus and Lyme disease, it's probably going to become a part of our lives, particularly when we venture into areas with greater numbers of mosquitoes. And like West Nile, while Zika can cause a wide range of severe problems like microcephaly, Guillain-Barré syndrome or paralysis, it's starting to look like most cases exhibit much milder symptoms, if any at all.
That doesn't suggest a major pandemic to me - in order to visit something as devastating as that on us requires a disease agent with a particular list of attributes, something I'm not seeing in Zika. Large numbers of victims with a high mortality rate and efficient human to human transmission are the hallmarks of one of those monsters, and I still firmly believe that only a novel influenza virus (or the release of something like Smallpox) can bring that about. This has the potential to cause a serious public health issue globally, but I don't see it causing any disruption to society.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/29/brazil-may-have-fewer-zika-related-microcephaly-cases-than-previously-reported/

No prob Willoby.

Great find JD.   Another thing that has me wondering a little is how they came up with the 1 mill cases in Brazil when apparently there are only select labs that are able to test for the virus.    Very few labs can test for Zika yet they have tested 1 mill samples?  Pretty safe bet that it could less than a mill and perhaps only around 1/3 as well. 

I'm sure there's a lot of fuzzy math and extrapolation going on when it comes to things like Zika rapidly emerging in places with poor healthcare/reporting. We'll probably know what really happened in a few years, much like the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
I work with a Boy Scout troop, and there's no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a big deal when we hike or camp - and we already have to consider West Nile, tick-borne Lyme disease, and even plague at many campgrounds.
I wonder what new protocols will be in place for pregnant women as this spreads to new areas and becomes endemic (which I'm sure it will). This will be one of those things where we reminisce about how much easier it was before we had to worry about Zika.
Watch the Asian Tiger mosquitoes - I firmly believe that they'll be key to it's further spread if they turn out be viable vectors for Zika. And buy stock in bug repellant manufacturers...

My question is: if a woman has Zika and recovers, will she be able to carry a healthy baby or will her offspring always be affected?

The truth of the matter, KiwiMum, is that we simply do not know.  Personally, I suspect that it hangs around for a while before clearing.  The worst of my suspicions is that it lingers for widely differing time spans according to the genetics and general health of the host.  

Albert wrote: This will be real nightmarish scenario when we see the destroyed families from this.   Remember, these babies are deformed AND with brain damage.  That's a double blow.   This is a really bad situation.  Sadly,  I would choose abortion before I bring a kid into the world like that.   That's just the sick reality to this thing and people should grasp the harsh reality of these choices coming up.    This one is d*mn near evil.