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El Salvador asking women not to have babies until 2018 due to Zika virus

Zorak

Zorak

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Hearing reports from in-laws in Brazil over New Year's, that stuff is scary. The epicenter is in my wife's hometown:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-d...affected-pregnant-women-children-microcephaly

The impression I got from them is that getting the virus in and of itself is like getting dengue fever (which the missus just described to me as "somewhere between the flu and malaria"). Not something you can't recover from if you're pretty healthy beforehand. She and her brother both had it and had no complications. It's when you're pregnant because of the likelihood of birth defects that is particularly scary.

We're concerned because we're expecting our second child in August, and the possibility of it impacting us directly. The few cases in the USA from what I've been reading have been from people who have traveled to that area of the world. We have no trips to Brazil or anywhere in the (potential) pandemic area but if it does start creeping up into the South (particularly Florida as we're planning a trip there in a couple of months), that's when I'll start really losing sleep. For now, it's just on our radar.
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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Tide in Athens said:
Hearing reports from in-laws in Brazil over New Year's, that stuff is scary. The epicenter is in my wife's hometown:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-d...affected-pregnant-women-children-microcephaly

The impression I got from them is that getting the virus in and of itself is like getting dengue fever (which the missus just described to me as "somewhere between the flu and malaria"). Not something you can't recover from if you're pretty healthy beforehand. She and her brother both had it and had no complications. It's when you're pregnant because of the likelihood of birth defects that is particularly scary.

We're concerned because we're expecting our second child in August, and the possibility of it impacting us directly. The few cases in the USA from what I've been reading have been from people who have traveled to that area of the world. We have no trips to Brazil or anywhere in the (potential) pandemic area but if it does start creeping up into the South (particularly Florida as we're planning a trip there in a couple of months), that's when I'll start really losing sleep. For now, it's just on our radar.
Click to expand...
The tiger mosquito, which is now common in the South, can vector it...
 
Jon

Jon

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between this, West Nile and Chickungunya (which has no cure) I'd say it's about time we told the Audubon society to pound sand for a couple of years while we brush off the DDT and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
 
jthomas666

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Heard a piece on this on NPR today. One of the major complications is that a large percentage of people infected with the virus are asymptomatic. Another large percentage only has mild symptoms, which in a poor community is likely to go diagnosed.
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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Jon said:
between this, West Nile and Chickungunya (which has no cure) I'd say it's about time we told the Audubon society to pound sand for a couple of years while we brush off the DDT and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Click to expand...
That's probably a good formula for breeding a generation of super bugs. It's a continual arms race now, moving on the next pesticide which works. DDT would only work for a while. It's not a magic bullet. As mentioned above, the main problem in the south will be with the poor areas. Huntsville is sprayed regularly in mosquito season and it controls the problem pretty well. Rural areas won't be controlled...
 
Displaced Bama Fan

Displaced Bama Fan

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Jon said:
between this, West Nile and Chickungunya (which has no cure) I'd say it's about time we told the Audubon society to pound sand for a couple of years while we brush off the DDT and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Click to expand...
Funny you mention DDT. That brings back childhood memories at the Mobile Public Library. In the children's section of the Moorer Branch by Spring Hill Baptist Church on McGregor, they had a book on DDT with a picture of Death on it.
 
Jon

Jon

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TIDE-HSV said:
That's probably a good formula for breeding a generation of super bugs. It's a continual arms race now, moving on the next pesticide which works. DDT would only work for a while. It's not a magic bullet. As mentioned above, the main problem in the south will be with the poor areas. Huntsville is sprayed regularly in mosquito season and it controls the problem pretty well. Rural areas won't be controlled...
Click to expand...
DDT seemed to work back in the day. There is a reason the US is Malaria free and Africa isn't, we used it heavily and then wouldn't let them

But I'll concede that it is far from my area of expertise and it could have unintended consequences. In the town where I have my second home in FL they spray pretty regularly with something, I have no idea what, and it seems to keep them at bay. I can't imagine why that is better than DDT but I've never looked into it as frankly I'm not sure I want to know. 2 out of the 4 in my family, my wife and son, get bitten by every mosquito within a 10 miles radius it seems. For me and my daughter we never get bit. This stuff worries me a great deal, to the point that I changed a planned Caribbean vacation last year to a south pacific one due to Chickungunya and its only a matter of time till it shows up in FL. I see where Brazil is thinking of trying genetically modified mosquitoes that can breed only males. Theoretically that should wipe out huge swaths in just a few short generations. I like it conceptually but can't help the lingering (read in Jeff Goldblums voice) "'Life uh .. uh finds a way" leading to who knows what
 
Jon

Jon

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TIDE-HSV said:
This is the sort of thing I'm talking about, Jon, and DDT is by no means immune to the immunity process:

LINK
Click to expand...
yeah, I know it happens

those Neonics are heavily suspected in Colony collapse disorder as well and are probably about to be banned in most of the developed world.

not sure what the answer is, though I have Bat Boxes up at my house in Atlanta and I believe they help without negatives

saw that directly when I was in Singapore too. They build bat recesses into the buildings. Its an awesome sight at dusk to watch them all swooping down and going to hunt

maybe we need to go on a massive bat breeding program
 
Displaced Bama Fan

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Jon said:
yeah, I know it happens

those Neonics are heavily suspected in Colony collapse disorder as well and are probably about to be banned in most of the developed world.

not sure what the answer is, though I have Bat Boxes up at my house in Atlanta and I believe they help without negatives

saw that directly when I was in Singapore too. They build bat recesses into the buildings. Its an awesome sight at dusk to watch them all swooping down and going to hunt

maybe we need to go on a massive bat breeding program
Click to expand...
Purple Martins as well.
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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Jon said:
I handed a tree removal worker $20 in cash to climb a large oak with a south facing exposure in my backyard and install mine
Click to expand...
I built mine and hoisted it. It turned out heavier than I thought it would be. On the back inside, it has 1" x2" strips about every six inches, horizontally, from the bottom to the top, for them to hang onto. It's also painted inside with a textured paint for the same reason. It'll hold a lot of bats. The image on the front is an old Navajo representation of a bat...
 
Zorak

Zorak

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It's impacting our travel plans now. We'd planned on going to Florida in late March for a few days (dropping the toddler off at his grandparents in Gainesville and scurrying off to the beach) but the entire peninsula is in a year round high risk area for local transmission of the disease:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/01/daily-chart-19

So looks like a mountain trip instead and having them come to us (not my FiL though, he's going to ground zero of the virus in Brazil in March to visit his sister who is pretty sick...he really needs to get down to see her).

Also means the we won't be able to make it for her sister's college graduation in late April also in Gainesville.

Normally won't be a big deal for us, but with the missus being pregnant, it's not something we want to chance. Just have to mitigate it here now as best we can since Athens-Clarke County doesn't spray.
 
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