Zika -- Is the U.S. Behind the 8-Ball?

The four new cases of the virus identified in a section of Miami, were not imported, or sexually transmitted. It appears there are mosquitos actively infected with the virus in Florida. Officials are capturing and testing the insects, but so far have not found any, stating it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

More is being learned about it's transmission. An older man who came into the country with it, was being cared for by his adult son, who has now contracted it. There was no active infected mosquitos in the area, and no sexual activity, so it is believed the virus can be transmitted through body fluids, which in some cases, can be lethal.

In February 2016, congress turned down Obama's request for 1.8 Billion dollars to fight and study the virus in the U.S. Labs are needed, and people to run them. There are traps and sprays, but more workers are needed to set the traps, and use the sprays. Standing water areas need to be drained, and workers are needed for that. The republican Congress flatly refused to fund the project.

A special session has again been requested to reexamine the issue, with the President citing reasons for needing more funding.

Congress has said there was money left over from the "ebola crisis" and they want to use that, which makes sense, but the President has said it's not enough if we are to get a handle on this before it gets out of control.

The former "Ebola Czar" is furious with how this has been handled.

EBOLA CZAR: HOUSE ZIKA PLAN IS 'IRRESPONSIBLE AND INEXCUSABLE' — Congress's failure to quickly act on Zika funding ignores all the hard-won lessons of the Ebola outbreak and puts Americans at risk of a preventable epidemic, Ron Klain told POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast.

Klain, who led the White House's successful response to the Ebola outbreak, says that the House's patchwork funding deal is especially egregious, because it takes money away from the ongoing fight against infectious diseases.

"This is as crazy as saying we're going to take a fire hydrant out of the ground in one place and move it some place else to fight a different fire," Klain said.

/www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-pulse/2016/05/house-approves-zika-funds-ebola-214385
www.politico.com...

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Nice research on your thread. This is scary and I hope more money comes in to help fix this problem.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

I've been following the articles. I had made a thread some time ago, but the replies one gets is that it is just doom porn or that it's not dangerous. It actually is more dangerous than previously thought.

Had they allowed the funding, we would have been all set by now. There's an inexpensive trap shaped like a tire with a pesticide the mosquitoes carry out with them and also destroys eggs laid in the tire.

It's ridiculous, but they said no just because it was something Obama wanted.

a reply to: reldra

Klain made another good point

— When politics collide with public health. He's also furious that partisan politics have been injected into a public health crisis — especially one that affects infants and leads to brain defects.

"The babies being born are neither Democrats or Republicans," Klain says. "They're babies."

The money approved is not enough. Obama is asking for more money, if we are to stop what has the potential to become a very unwelcome outbreak.


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There are 6,390 confirmed Zika cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes 1,651 cases in the continental U.S. and 4,728 cases in the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

The first local spread of Zika virus through infected mosquitoes in the continential U.S. occurred in Florida in late July.

www.washingtonpost.com...

The most troubling aspect of this, what we are beginning to understand, is that transmission can be from human to human, through body fluids, without sexual activity, much like ebola.

Care providers should be trained and educated about how to care for their patients.

I am not ready to run to the hills over Zika...

Should it be watched... sure... should it be studied... yup... should we throw money at it and hope things get better no.

Without a clear plan (something Congress is incapable of) throwing money at it is just literally throwing money away.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

We already have labs, we already have people. We already have staff and scientists working on it.

This is a 2-stage attempt by the government..


Stage 1, monetize a disease. Placing a dollar figure on it equates to "caring" about it.

Stage 2, get government involved into reproductive choices that parents may have. Expect to see a "Department of Reproduction" soon.

originally posted by: reldra
It's ridiculous, but they said no just because it was something Obama wanted.

After the huge expense of the 0bamacare website ... I wouldn't have given 0bama any more money either.

Ya know ... it really wouldn't be all that hard to kill every mosquito in America. Why not go that route? Nobody likes a skeeter anyway.

If anybody is interested in the money fight, you can read this. It's not only the republicans either. The Democrats are being asses as well.

www.nytimes.com...

And while I have politicized this issue, and yes I have, the air you breathe and the water you drink is political.

Isn't everything anymore?

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
And while I have politicized this issue, and yes I have, the air you breathe and the water you drink is political.

Isn't everything anymore?

LOL
Well ... it will be all the way up to November. After that ... it might cool off a bit.

originally posted by: Quantum12
a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Nice research on your thread. This is scary and I hope more money comes in to help fix this problem.

Thanks Q. It's coming in eventually, but apparently not until everybody has made complete fools of themselves. On both sides of the aisle.

____________

originally posted by: Irishhaf
I am not ready to run to the hills over Zika...

Should it be watched... sure... should it be studied... yup... should we throw money at it and hope things get better no.

Without a clear plan (something Congress is incapable of) throwing money at it is just literally throwing money away.

I don't think anybody is running to the hills over it, do you?
I am highlighting the inability of our government to work together even on an internal issue as obvious as this.
The virus can and should be stopped. It will take money to do it.

That should be all there is to it.

originally posted by: Snarl

originally posted by: reldra
It's ridiculous, but they said no just because it was something Obama wanted.

After the huge expense of the 0bamacare website ... I wouldn't have given 0bama any more money either.

Ya know ... it really wouldn't be all that hard to kill every mosquito in America. Why not go that route? Nobody likes a skeeter anyway.

Umm ecosystem? Science stuff? lol

Zika was first identified in 1947.

It's not a "new" disease.

It's just that our open-door immigration policies have enabled viruses new opportunities to spread.

a reply to: Snarl

Nature will always find a way to survive. Mosquitoes are probably as persistent as cockroaches.

Zika Outbreak Epicenter In Same Area Where GM Mosquitoes Were Released In 2015

Oxitec first unveiled its large-scale, genetically-modified mosquito farm in Brazil in July 2012, with the goal of reducing “the incidence of dengue fever,” as The Disease Daily reported. Dengue fever is spread by the same Aedes mosquitoes which spread the Zika virus — and though they “cannot fly more than 400 meters,” WHO stated, “it may inadvertently be transported by humans from one place to another.” By July 2015, shortly after the GM mosquitoes were first released into the wild in Juazeiro, Brazil, Oxitec proudly announced they had “successfully controlled the Aedes aegyptimosquito that spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and zika virus, by reducing the target population by more than 90%.”

The genetically-modified mosquitoes were released in same area where the Zika outbreak is happening now.



Fight more back and maybe it will create something even far more worse.

originally posted by: reldra

originally posted by: Snarl

originally posted by: reldra
It's ridiculous, but they said no just because it was something Obama wanted.

After the huge expense of the 0bamacare website ... I wouldn't have given 0bama any more money either.

Ya know ... it really wouldn't be all that hard to kill every mosquito in America. Why not go that route? Nobody likes a skeeter anyway.

Umm ecosystem? Science stuff? lol

Yeah ... right. What's more important, skeeters and the things that eat them ... or people? I can't remember the last time I saw a skeeter where I live ... so probably not real important in the grand scheme.

But you go right ahead. Skeeters need Social Justice Warriors too.

I don't know anything about different species of mosquito except to say they all like me .
Apparently the mosquito capable of transmitting this is one that lives in areas nearer the equator and won't survive the winter in northern states. So they believe this won't spread because of that.

The lens can distort . Information is still being gathered. Be vigilant. The price of mosquito repellent is going to soar. Hint hint.(stock market buy)

Remember when they believed that AIDS was only a disease of gay men?

a reply to: Snarl

I can't remember the last time I saw a skeeter where I live ... so probably not real important in the grand scheme.

You haven't seen one? lol. Lucky you. And in the meantime, the southern states are bracing themselves, and running our spray trucks on a regular basis. Local news reminding everybody to check for standing water, which most of us do on a daily basis, especially after it rains. I check my bird baths and flower pot saucers daily.

Glad it's "not important" in your area.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
Zika was first identified in 1947.

It's not a "new" disease.

It's just that our open-door immigration policies have enabled viruses new opportunities to spread.

Maybe your favorite 'politician" can build, er, some sort of construct to keep them out. Too bad mosquitos don't have any money, or he could send them the bill too! Well who knows? It's trump afterall! Maybe he can do it!

I think many of our cases were brought back from American workers in South America. I know some of the first ones were brought back from American men down there.... fighting mosquitos. Ouch. What an awful job.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Florida and the southern states are going to be invaded by the ZIKA, due to the summer months tropical waves,I suggest that any women of childbearing years, do not get any vaccination to yellow fever. It seems that is a correlation of yellow fever vaccine and ZIKA brain problems born children as a side effect of the vaccine and virus.

Most of the studies on this problems comes from areas where yellow fever vaccines are part of the regular vaccinations protocols.

I wonder why the CDC doesn't talks about this.

So far In my Island ZIKA has spread all over the municipalities, but thankfully no babies been born yet with brain problems, but then again yellow fever vaccine is not part of the Island vaccination protocols.

Hawaii and NY had the first two cases of ZIKA brain problems babies been born in the US, but both mothers came from south America already infected.

Still if I was of child bearing years I would wait until ZIKA dies down before getting with child, for now.