Zika Truth /zikatruth Zika Truth Fri, 09 Dec 2016 19:32:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2 ZIKA DOOMSDAY HOAX UNRAVELS: Predicted ‘explosion’ of brain defects didn’t happen… entire scare campaign was manufactured /zikatruth/2016-08-04-zika-dommsday-hoax-unravels-mike-adams/ /zikatruth/2016-08-04-zika-dommsday-hoax-unravels-mike-adams/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-08-04-zika-dommsday-hoax-unravels-mike-adams From the very first day Zika hysteria was catapulted into mass awareness, I have correctly called it a massive hoax. My most recently article spells out the real agenda behind the obvious quackery of Zika hysteria. It’s entitled Staged Zika pandemic was engineered by globalist governments to justify the aerial bombardment of awakening populations with toxic chemicals.
Now, the Zika fraud has started to unravel as the Zika doomsday predictions failed to materialize. (How could the predictions be correct in the first place? It was all based on infectious disease quackery and viral voodoo.) “Brazil’s Ministry of Health has launched an investigation into the cluster of babies born with brain defects linked to the Zika virus, after an expected ‘explosion’ of cases across the country did not occur,” reports The Globe and Mail (Canada).

It turns out that even though Zika-carrying mosquitoes spread across Brazil and infected untold millions of people, those infections never translated into neurodevelopmental birth defects (shrunken brains).

The Zika virus alone, in other words, isn’t causing a wave of microcephaly, which is exactly what I’ve been accurately telling everyone since day one.

The sky is falling! Shocking lack of brain deformities baffles all the experts who still won’t admit they were wrong

“The bulk of the cases of congenital Zika syndrome – fetal brain defects that sometimes cause microcephaly, or abnormally small skulls – remain clustered in the northeast region of the country,” reports the astonished Globe and Mail. This defies all the “official” predictions, of course, which warned the world of a doomsday Zika scenario where humans in all the tropical regions of the world would be reduced to babbling, stunted deformed creatures unless we all agreed to be bombarded by aerial pesticide chemicals.

From the Globe and Mail:

“We can see there is a kind of cluster in [part of] the northeast region with high prevalence and high severity, of miscarriage and congenital malformation that is really severe,” said Fatima Marinho, coordinator of epidemiological analysis and information at the ministry.

“But we didn’t find this in other states – even the [adjacent] states didn’t see the same situation as in the epicentre.… We were preparing for an explosion and it didn’t come. “So we started to think that in this central area maybe more than Zika is causing this intensity and severity.”

Note that even now, these scientists still can’t admit they were wrong. They can’t say that Zika has nothing to do with the microcephaly cases. And they most assuredly can’t admit that it was a larvicide chemical dumped into the water supply that caused the neurodevelopmental deformities from the very beginning.

Yet, once again, Zika hysteria dominated the scientifically illiterate media, in much the same way that the climate change hoax also grabs headlines. In both cases, you have the combination of false fear and bad science, amplified by a scientifically illiterate (but politically compliant) mainstream media, and believed by a gullible population of cowardly consumers who fall for every quack science hoax perpetrated on them by dishonest government.

According to quack scientists, mosquitoes conduct “racial profiling” to bite black people of low economic status

To demonstrate how ridiculous the status quo theory is on Zika, consider the fact that the documented microcephaly cases in Brazil appeared predominantly in black Brazilians of low economic status.

Now, if you believe the Zika doomsday scientists, that can only happen if mosquitoes are racially profiling people and selectively targeting black people after checking their bank accounts to make sure they’re also poor. Such a belief is, of course, utterly ridiculous.

Mosquitoes don’t care what color you are. All they know is that you’re a warm-blooded being with a source of nutrients they need.

So what’s the real explanation for the cluster of microcephaly cases among lower income regions of Brazil where predominantly black-skinned people live? Because that’s where they dumped the “pyroproxyfen” chemical into the water!

The obvious answer is already identified: Toxic chemicals that cause brain deformities

Pyroproxyfen is the larvicide chemical used by the Brazilian government to try to quell mosquito populations in the poorer, more rural regions of Brazil. The chemical, as I have exhaustively documented here on Natural News, works by destroying the neurological development of insects. A group of scientists in Brazil already sounded the alarm about pyroproxyfen, saying it was the actual cause of the microcephaly.

As reported in Natural News, Feb. 11, 2016:

From the doctors at Red Universitaria de Ambiente y Salud (the Red University of Environment and Health):

A dramatic increase of congenital malformations, especially microcephaly in newborns, was detected and quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. However, they fail to recognise that in the area where most sick persons live, a chemical larvicide producing malformations in mosquitoes has been applied for 18 months, and that this poison (pyroproxyfen) is applied by the State on drinking water used by the affected population.

Pyroproxyfen is extremely toxic to all forms of life that have a nervous system and carries numerous severe warnings about its toxicity. See PubChem for details.

Zika virus has been around more than 60 years, but has never caused brain deformities

What we are all witnessing with Zika doomsday hysteria is one of the most obscene scientific hoaxes of the decade, second only to the climate change hoax that’s still being perpetrated by the hucksters and con artists of incompetent (and corrupt) government.

Another telling admission in the obvious fraud of the Zika doomsday hoax is the undeniable fact that Zika virus has been around for 60 – 70 years. Yet it has never been found to cause microcephaly before. Hmmm…

The mainstream media even admits all this. Via the Globe and Mail:

The virus currently infecting Brazilians is a new, Asian strain of Zika, which was identified more than 60 years ago but never associated with congenital problems, or known to be sexually transmissible, as this strain is.

And that’s why all the doomsday warnings about Zika never unfolded:

After Brazil, the next country that was expected to see the wave of congenital Zika was Colombia, which has the second-largest number of reported Zika cases. But of more than 12,000 pregnant Colombian women with Zika, only 21 have had fetuses or babies with the brain defects.

So wait a minute. All this Zika hysteria is being pushed across Florida and the United States even after 12,000 pregnant Colombian women with Zika resulted in just 21 babies with brain defects?

Folks, 21 out of 12,000 brain defects is a TYPICAL RATE, with or without Zika. Zika has nothing to do with it. That’s just 0.175% of babies being born with brain deformities of some kind. But if you listen to the Zika hysteria of CNN, you might be convinced Zika causes a 99% brain deformity rate!

According to the delirious state-run media of the United States, Zika is so incredibly dangerous that Olympic athletes are refusing to compete in Rio out of the horrifying fear that they might catch Zika. Woman are cancelling their vacations to Florida. The sheeple are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, frantically slathering themselves with toxic DEET bug sprays in the hope that their own brains won’t be turned to mush by Zika.

I’ve got news for them: Their brains have already been turned to mush by the mainstream media that promoted this Zika doomsday hoax from the get go. And besides, if you’re going to slather yourself with bug spray, use my essential oils-based Bugs Away Spray which is DEET free. Yet, even when I’m plugging my own natural bug spray, I’m telling you right up front that Zika is a total hoax. Even if you’re infected, it’s actually no big deal. Even the CDC admits most people carrying Zika are completely symptomless and require no hospitalization at all. (They don’t even realize they were infected.)

The CDC also admits, by the way, that you will self-immunize against Zika upon the first exposure.

Zika hysteria is the height of modern human idiocy and scientific quackery on parade

Think about it: We’ve got millions of people running around poisoning themselves with chemical bug sprays to protect themselves from a fake, fabricated viral “shrunken brains” threat that isn’t even real.

So to protect themselves from a fictional boogeyman, they are giving themselves real cancer from the toxic chemicals in popular bug sprays. The abject idiocy of all this is astonishing, even to those of us who have already resigned to the fact that most sheeple are too terrified into obedient compliance to dare think for themselves.

Consider the simple fact that if Zika really caused microcephaly, all the populations of Brazil, Colombia and even Haiti or Cuba would have collapsed decades ago. The history books would be full of documented microcephaly pandemics, and legitimate scientists would have been studying this since the 1950’s.

So where are all the shrunken head babies, then?

It’s a simple question: If Zika is so bad and spreading so rapidly, WHERE ARE ALL THE SHRUNKEN HEAD BABIES? Except for a very small number who were born to pregnant women exposed to toxic chemicals, the “wave” of shrunken head babies never materialized. They don’t exist!

But no, we’re supposed to believe that magically, without any particular reason, Zika suddenly and spontaneously started targeting black Brazilians of low economic status, causing brain deformities in their children but no one else’s. It’s ludicrous at every level of scientific and critical thinking.

Turn this all around and consider the following: If, two years ago, someone in the alternative media had claimed that mosquitoes were carrying a virus that selectively caused shrunken brains only in people with black skin and low incomes, we would have been called lunatics by the establishment. But when the establishment says the same ridiculous thing, suddenly it’s heralded as “science!” … no matter how absurd the claims.

Yes, we have a shrunken brain pandemic in America… it’s caused by watching cable news

Yes, there are shrunken brains all over our world, but they’re not caused by Zika. They’re caused by people stupidly believing everything they see reported by CNN’s scientifically illiterate propagandists.

Yes, there is an epidemic of shrunken brains in America, and it’s caused by watching cable news. If you believe anything you see on CNN, you’re probably dumber than a mosquito.

And now that you know what a total farce the Zika doomsday scare campaign really is, ask yourself this simple question: Do you believe anything the mainstream media reports about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

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The Zika hoax is about population control /zikatruth/2016-07-14-the-zika-hoax-is-about-population-control/ /zikatruth/2016-07-14-the-zika-hoax-is-about-population-control/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-07-14-the-zika-hoax-is-about-population-control

When we hear or read about population control, it does not mean that there are too many people as the propaganda implies. It means that there are too many non-producing, consuming people.

(Article by Bob Livingston)

Not only do we have an aging population, we have a growing population of poor, non-producing consumers.

I have previously stated that the people who rule the world have long-term horizons. They plan 100 to 200 years and longer in advance. People who rule by the power of money and propaganda think beyond their lifetimes. They think about the perpetuation of their ownership of the earth to their own posterity.

If you were one of the ruling oligarchy with people data at your fingertips, you could easily predict the mass mind. Government is a visible political system, but real power behind the government operates above the threshold of intelligence. The conditioned (by the public [non]education system and mass media propaganda) mind does not and cannot understand esoteric (hidden) power. The conditioned mind tends to take things at face value without any serious inquiry. A double dimension plot is not credible to the conditioned mind.

Well, now in modern “democracy,” (a euphemism for benevolent totalitarianism) the aged and the infirm are not lined up and shot. Nor are poor babies gathered up and drowned. There are more “benevolent” and subtle ways to eliminate them.

Enter the Zika virus hoax. I told you in February the Zika virus hoax is a plot to overturn the strict abortion laws of the mostly-Catholic Latin American countries.

In a statement on February 5, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said that that laws and policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services in contravention of international standards, must be repealed and concrete steps must be taken so that women have the information, support and services they require to exercise their rights to determine whether and when they become pregnant [emphasis added].

The Zika hoax promoters’ efforts are working. As expected, there is now an uptick abortions in Latin American countries, reports the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers found a particular uptick in Women on Web abortion requests in countries that issued health advisories about Zika, but also legally restrict abortions. The mosquito-borne virus is associated with microcephaly, a congenital condition that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads. The researchers defined an “advisory” as a formal warning from the government to avoid pregnancy, a declared state of national emergency or a caution about pregnancy risk from medical professionals.

The findings highlight the need for Latin American women to have access to safe and legal reproductive options, especially as Zika continues to spread, the researchers said.

“Zika will inevitably spread to other countries where safe abortion is restricted,” said co-author James Trussell, the Charles and Marie Roberton Professor of Public and International Affairs, Emeritus, at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

“Therefore, we must ensure that all reproductive choices are safe, legal and accessible,” Trussell said. “To do otherwise would be irresponsible public health practice and unjust policy.” [emphasis added]

The Zika virus is a hoax. Were Zika responsible for the alleged increase in microcephaly cases in Brazil – an increase that is not quantifiable because there are no historic records of microcephaly cases in Brazil – there would likewise be an increase in microcephaly cases in other Latin American countries where the Aedes mosquito is found. But a report by New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) has found none.

NECSI blames the “increase” in Brazilian microcephaly cases on thepesticide pyripoxyfen, which has been added to the country’s drinking water to control mosquitoes.

I reported that in February as well, and told you why corporate governments need population control. Producers — working people — have to balance with nonproducing retired people and nonproducing moochers off the system. So the system promotes killing unborn children (they call it “free choice”),  noncures for degenerative diseases like cancer and heart disease, vaccines (we are assured that a Zika vaccine is being “rushed” into production) that reduce natural immunity and kill over time, and chemicals in our food and water that cause cancer and a host of other conditions and birth defects. Chemical warfare and noncures result in population reduction.

 

Read more at: personalliberty.com

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Mosquito trap maker can’t meet demand amid Zika outbreak /zikatruth/2016-06-22-mosquito-trap-maker-cant-meet-demand-amid-zika-outbreak/ /zikatruth/2016-06-22-mosquito-trap-maker-cant-meet-demand-amid-zika-outbreak/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-22-mosquito-trap-maker-cant-meet-demand-amid-zika-outbreak

The “enormous demand” created by the international Zika epidemic for traps used to monitor mosquitoes that carry the virus caught their German manufacturer off-guard, two company officials said Friday.

(Article by Jennifer Kay, republished from http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/national/2016/05/27/Mosquito-trap-company-surprised-by-demand-amid-Zika-outbreak.html)

According to Biogents’ only U.S. distributor, a backlog affects 1,950 traps ordered by governments and private businesses in Florida, Ohio, Kentucky and a few other states.

“Yes, unfortunately we have indeed a problem with the enormous demand of the traps due to the Zika outbreak,” Biogents board member Martin Geier confirmed in an email Friday to The Associated Press. “We are a small/medium enterprise and had to adapt our production to the market needs.”

The small company in Regensburg, Germany, typically fills a few thousand orders for these BG-Sentinel traps each year. Now it has had to ramp up production, Geier and board member Andreas Rose said in emails.

“Our stocks were sold out quicker than expected,” Rose said.

An incoming shipment should fill orders for about 1,500 of the traps by the week of June 6, according to BioQuip Products Inc., the Los Angeles-based distributor.

The black, cylindrical traps, slightly larger than ice buckets, draw Aedes aegypti and Asian tiger mosquitoes into bags by emitting a scent that mimics the odor of humans.

“The BG Sentinel trap currently is the best trap for attracting the Aedes mosquitoes. There are other traps on the market, but if you’re trying to do surveillance for Aedes, this one is specifically designed to attract them,” said Susan Weinstein, Arkansas’ public health veterinarian.

Nearly 600 travel-related Zika cases have been reported nationwide. Most people only suffer a mild and brief illness, but the virus can cause severe birth defects and neurological problems in some adults, including a rare syndrome that can be fatal or result in temporary paralysis.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the National Press Club on Thursday that his agency is trying to fast-track innovations to fight Zika, such as new traps that kill female mosquitoes.

“We’ve developed new traps that are effective and actually can knock down the spread of diseases spread, like Zika, by half, very simply, at a low cost,” Frieden said.

Health officials have tracked 160 travel-related Zika cases in Florida, including 37 involving pregnant women. More than half of Florida’s order for more than 300 of the BG-Sentinel traps is delayed, meaning a longer wait for areas of the state that lack this surveillance capacity.

But Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Thursday he isn’t overly concerned by the backlog, even as other states order more of the traps. Arkansas health officials plan to order more after requesting 20 in December. In Texas, health officials said 50 are on order and they’ll likely request more.

In Florida, mosquitoes caught in the traps are sent to a state lab, newly equipped to screen for Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Florida’s broad Zika response efforts also include a hotline, strident calls from the governor to prepare for the virus as though it were an incoming hurricane, media campaigns to “drain and cover” standing water and more local enforcement of codes requiring property owners to remove containers where mosquitoes might breed.

Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.

Read more at: http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/national/2016/05/27/Mosquito-trap-company-surprised-by-demand-amid-Zika-outbreak.html

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Zika: the myths versus the truth /zikatruth/2016-06-22-zika-the-myths-versus-the-truth/ /zikatruth/2016-06-22-zika-the-myths-versus-the-truth/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-22-zika-the-myths-versus-the-truth The Zika virus is not being spread by genetically engineered mosquitoes, nor is it transmitted through vaccines.

(Article by Meredith Cohn, republished from http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/news/current-affairs/zika-the-myths-versus-the-truth-20160601-gp9gnw)

It also is not part of a plan by pharmaceutical companies to boost sales of a future vaccine.

The rumours, conspiracy theories and myths being shared on social media and by word of mouth are seemingly as contagious as the disease.

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A dad with his baby, who has microcephaly after his mother was affected by the ZIka virus. Photo: UESLEI MARCELINO

Researchers worry that such misinformation could undermine efforts to control Zika’s spread and even the public’s willingness to accept any vaccine. Public health officials are working to share accurate information about the virus and its risks with the public.

“Once people have made up their minds about something, it’s hard for them to change their opinions,” said Mark Dredze, an assistant research professor in the Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

In a study published recently in the journal Vaccine, Dredze, together with researchers at George Washington University and the University of Georgia, concluded that many Twitter posts on the topic were not backed by science.

Misinformation and outright conspiracy theories have abounded since the beginning of time, those who study the phenomenon say.

They are the “lifeblood of epidemics”, said Dr Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan.

The difference now is the amplification the internet and social media offer anyone with a keyboard and connection, he said. With a growing distrust of medical studies and therapies funded by government and big corporations, Dr Markel said, even more people are doubting and filling the web with alternative theories.

Some people thought Ebola was a government plan to eliminate poor Africans, while others suggested maybe it was a medical trial gone horribly wrong.

Others thought HIV was God’s way of punishing gay people or the CIA’s way to eliminate them.

It’s not surprising that some whoppers about a scary and not-particularly understood virus called Zika are making the rounds and getting traction, Dr Markel said.

In April, health authorities officially declared the mosquito-borne Zika caused microcephaly, a severe birth defect characterised by small brains and heads that has affected the fetuses of some infected pregnant women.

In the months preceding the declaration, Dredze’s team found posts wrongly linking microcephaly to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. That’s the vaccine often blamed for causing autism in children, despite that claim having been debunked widely by scientists.

A February survey found 19 per cent of more than 1000 Americans said they believed scientists thought microcephaly could result when pregnant women drank water containing a pesticide to stop the spread of mosquitoes. But scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found this not to be true.

The survey also found 22 per cent believed scientists were blaming genetically modified mosquitoes for the Zika outbreak, and 20 per cent believed scientists blamed vaccines, though authorities say both are false.

Dr Markel agreed that the myths and conspiracies can be harmful, prompting distrust and fear of treatments and vaccines. Public health officials blamed an outbreak of measles in California among children not vaccinated on parental concerns about the vaccine.

Sometimes it’s not even a conspiracy theory, but the miscommunication of something that began with a kernel of truth, like the genetically altered mosquitoes, which public health officials say may help fight Zika.

“It’s like the old game of telephone, when by the time you pass the information from person to person, the message is very different at the end,” Markel said.

Read more at: http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/news/current-affairs/zika-the-myths-versus-the-truth-20160601-gp9gnw

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The shocking truth behind Zika… /zikatruth/2016-06-22-the-shocking-truth-behind-zika/ /zikatruth/2016-06-22-the-shocking-truth-behind-zika/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-22-the-shocking-truth-behind-zika

The rise of the Zika virus began decades ago in a jungle in Uganda.

The Zika virus outbreak has reached epidemic proportions, and threatens to impact the upcoming Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — and the truth of how it spread may surprise you.

(Article by Dan Taylor, republished from http://www.morningticker.com/2016/06/the-shocking-truth-behind-zika/)

Although Zika seems like a recent phenomenon, it was actually discovered in 1947 in Uganda by scientists who were seeking to identify yellow fever in a rhesus monkey. A year later, the virus was recovered in a mosquito in Zika Forest, where it got its name.

The first human cases were detected in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, and the virus later spread to Nigeria.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Zika was detected in both mosquitoes and monkeys across the equitorial region of Africa, and it eventually spread to India and other Asian countries.

Zika broke out of Africa and Asia in 2007, reaching the Pacific island of Yap. In 2013, Zika outbreaks struck a number of Pacific islands. And in March 2015, the first Zika outbreak was reported in Brazil. Just a few months later, Brazil would declare a public health emergency.

Read more at: http://www.morningticker.com/2016/06/the-shocking-truth-behind-zika/

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Préfecture plans public awareness event as Zika cases climb to 180 /zikatruth/2016-06-22-prefecture-plans-public-awareness-event-as-zika-cases-climb-to-180/ /zikatruth/2016-06-22-prefecture-plans-public-awareness-event-as-zika-cases-climb-to-180/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-22-prefecture-plans-public-awareness-event-as-zika-cases-climb-to-180
The French Institute for Public Health Surveillance INVS noted in its June 9 bulletin that St. Martin now has 180 confirmed cases, with 35 new cases reported since the last bulletin.(Article by The Daily Herald, republished from https://thedailyherald.sx/islands/58207-prefecture-plans-public-awareness-event-as-zika-cases-climb-to-180)

Included in the number are six pregnant women who are being monitored. Concerning neurological complications, only one case has been reported. The number of consultations with family doctors for suspicion of Zika continues to rise. There were 155 consultations in the first week of May.

The virus is being described as in an “active circulation phase.”

Préfète Anne Laubies, President of the Collectivité Aline Hanson, Director of the Louis-Constant Fleming Hospital Roland Toussaint and representatives from Agence Régional de Santé (ARS) are inviting the general public to an awareness session on Zika that will be held in the market area on the Marigot waterfront on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, from 8:00am onwards.

Information on preventing the spread of Zika and protecting oneself from mosquito bites will be dispensed to the public via information stands and flyers printed in English, French, and Spanish.

Guppy fish which eat the larvae of mosquitoes in cisterns will also be available for the public.

Read more at: https://thedailyherald.sx/islands/58207-prefecture-plans-public-awareness-event-as-zika-cases-climb-to-180
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Dallas County Confirms 2 News Zika Cases, Both from Travelers /zikatruth/2016-06-22-dallas-county-confirms-2-news-zika-cases-both-from-travelers/ /zikatruth/2016-06-22-dallas-county-confirms-2-news-zika-cases-both-from-travelers/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-22-dallas-county-confirms-2-news-zika-cases-both-from-travelers Dallas County Health says two more cases of Zika virus have been confirmed in the county — both imported by travelers.

(Article by NBC, republished from http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Dallas-County-Confirms-2-News-Zika-Cases-383301901.html)

Both cases were confirmed through the testing in the DCHHS lab and are being sent to the Teas Department of State Health Services for review.

The eighth case is a 15-year-old resident of Dallas who was infected with the virus during recent travel to Honduras and El Salvador. The ninth case is a 61-year-old resident of Garland who was infected during travel to Guatemala.

For medical confidentiality and personal privacy reasons, DCHHS does not provide additional identifying information.

Common symptoms of Zika virus include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting several days to a week.

There is no medication to treat Zika virus and there is no vaccine; the best prevention is to avoid mosquitoes and sexual contact with infected people. The recommendations for avoiding the Zika virus are the same for avoiding West Nile virus.

How to Protect Yourself from Mosquito Bites

  • Dress in long sleeves, pants when outside: For extra protection, spray thin clothing with repellent.
  • DEET: Make sure this ingredient is in your insect repellent.
  • Drain standing water in your yard and neighborhood: Mosquitoes can develop in any water stagnant for more than three days.

It has been recommended in the past that to avoid mosquito bites you should avoid being outdoors during Dusk and Dawn (the 4 Ds). While this is true for mosquitoes that commonly carry the West Nile virus, other types of mosquitoes that are more likely to carry Zika, dengue and chikungunya are active during the day, according to the CDC. When outdoors, adjust your dress and wear repellent containing DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus as your first lines of defense against insect bites.

Read more at: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Dallas-County-Confirms-2-News-Zika-Cases-383301901.html

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Six Cases of Zika Virus-Linked Birth Defects in US, CDC Says /zikatruth/2016-06-22-six-cases-of-zika-virus-linked-birth-defects-in-us-cdc-says/ /zikatruth/2016-06-22-six-cases-of-zika-virus-linked-birth-defects-in-us-cdc-says/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-22-six-cases-of-zika-virus-linked-birth-defects-in-us-cdc-says Three babies have been born with birth defects linked to the Zika virus in the United States, and three more have been lost to miscarriages or aborted because of the birth defects, federal health officials said Thursday.

(Article by Maggie Fox, republished from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/zika-virus-outbreak/six-cases-zika-virus-linked-birth-defects-us-cdc-says-n593866)

All of the women were infected with Zika by travel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. But the CDC also expects localized outbreaks of Zika in the U.S. as mosquito season starts. Puerto Rico already has an epidemic and has also reported at least one Zika-associated birth defect.

“The poor birth outcomes reported include those that have been detected in infants infected with Zika before or during birth, including microcephaly, calcium deposits in the brain indicating possible brain damage, excess fluid in the brain cavities and surrounding the brain, absent or poorly formed brain structures, abnormal eye development, or other problems resulting from damage to brain that affects nerves, muscles and bones, such as clubfoot or inflexible joints,” the CDC said in a statement.

 

“These numbers are not real time estimates. They will reflect the outcomes of pregnancies reported with any laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection as of 12 noon every Thursday the week prior; numbers will be delayed one week.”

 

The CDC says 234 pregnant women in the United States, both residents and visitors, have been diagnosed with Zika. Another 189 cases have been reported in U.S. territories, mostly Puerto Rico.

Thursday’s six cases do not include Puerto Rico or other territories, CDC said.

 

“Unfortunately I think it is not surprising. I think it is consistent with what we have seen in Brazil and Colombia,” said the CDC’s Dr. Denise Jamieson, who is heading up the agency watch on Zika-affected pregnancies.

“Some, but not all, of the infants have had evidence of Zika virus infection,” Jamieson told NBC News.

“What we are reporting is moms who had laboratory evidence of Zika virus infection and the baby had birth defects consistent with Zika virus infection.”

 

CDC and the World Health Organization now say there is no doubt that Zika causes birth defects. They also say there’s no doubt that, like many other infections, it can cause rare neurological complications including Guillain-Barre syndrome.

 

“Although these outcomes occurred in pregnancies with laboratory evidence of Zika virus infection, we do not know whether they were caused by Zika virus infection or other factors,” CDC said.

And experts point out that not all birth defects are obvious when a baby is first born. based on what Zika does in a developing fetus — it seems to head straight for nerve cells — experts suspect it will also cause vision, hearing and learning problems in some affected babies.

The CDC did not identify the cases in any way but two cases of Zika-affected babies are known about: a Honduran woman who gave birth in New Jersey last month and a woman in Hawaii whose baby was born with microcephaly.

The CDC advises pregnant women, or women who might become pregnant, to stay away from areas where Zika’s spreading. And anyone in a Zika-affected area is advised to prevent mosquito bites with clothing, repellent and by staying indoors.

Because Zika can also be sexually transmitted, CDC says any man who may have been infected, even if he doesn’t have symptoms, needs to take care not to infect sexual partners who could be pregnant or become pregnant.

Read more at: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/zika-virus-outbreak/six-cases-zika-virus-linked-birth-defects-us-cdc-says-n593866

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Zika virus total surpasses 100 cases in Costa Rica /zikatruth/2016-06-20-zika-virus-total-surpasses-100-cases-in-costa-rica/ /zikatruth/2016-06-20-zika-virus-total-surpasses-100-cases-in-costa-rica/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-20-zika-virus-total-surpasses-100-cases-in-costa-rica

Costa Rica’s tally of confirmed Zika cases exceeded 100 last week, according to the Health Ministry.

(Article by L. Arias, republished from http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/06/20/zika-surpasses-100-costa-rica)

The June 15 report stated there are 107 confirmed cases of Zika virus, 67 of them in the Central Pacific canton of Garabito where the popular beach destination of Jacó is located.

Of the 107 affected, 46 are men and 61 are women. Patients range from 3 to 74 years old and the average age is 17, the ministry reported. There are five pregnant women with confirmed cases of Zika but lab tests so far do not indicate the presence of microcephaly, a birth defect linked to the virus.

Health officials also confirmed 14 patients contracted the virus abroad: nine in Nicaragua, three in Colombia, one in Honduras and one in the Dominican Republic.

One woman from El Salvador gave birth here to a child with microcephaly but she contracted the virus in her home country, Health Surveillance director Daniel Peraza told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.

Thus far, the virus is concentrated in the Pacific provinces of Puntarenas and Guanacaste.

Besides cases in Garabito, the report lists nine cases in the Puntarenas canton of Parrita, eight in Nicoya, Guanacaste, four in central Puntarenas, and four in Alajuelita, south of San José.

Other mosquito-borne diseases

Cases of other mosquito-borne diseases continue to rise, according to the ministry’s report.

As of last week, health officials have recorded 7,711 confirmed cases of dengue and 1,483 cases of chikungunya.

Health officials carried out inspections at 352,835 households throughout the country during the past 22 weeks, eliminating nearly 1.5 million breeding sites of Aedes aegyptiand Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, the main carriers of Zika, dengue and chikungunya.

Dengue is now present in 90 percent of Costa Rica’s cantons, while chikungunya is present in more than half.

During the same news conference, the ministry’s vector control coordinator, Rodrigo Marín, called on the population to properly dispose of objects that can collect stagnant water and act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes, including old tires, barrels, cans, buckets and bottles.

Protection for pregnant women

Marín said the ministry will begin distributing mosquito nets, repellents and door screens for the homes of 27,000 pregnant women starting next month. He said the measure aims at reducing infection risks in pregnant women, especially those with fewer than 14 weeks of gestation.

The National Emergency Commission will help distribute the anti-mosquito gear in 31 cantons included in a health emergency decree issued in February following a spike in Zika cases.

Those cantons are:

San José: Central, Santa Ana, Desamparados, Alajuelita, Pérez Zeledón

Alajuela: Central, Atenas, Orotina

Heredia: Sarapiquí

Guanacaste: Liberia, Carrillo, Santa Cruz, Nicoya, Cañas, La Cruz, Abangares

Puntarenas: Central, Esparza, Montes de Oro, Garabito, Parrita, Quepos, Golfito, Osa, Corredores

Limón: Central, Pococí, Guácimo, Siquirres, Matina

Cartago: Turrialba

Contact L. Arias at [email protected]

 

Read more at: http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/06/20/zika-surpasses-100-costa-rica

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The Zika Virus Poses A Threat To Everyone, Especially At The Rio Olympics /zikatruth/2016-06-20-the-zika-virus-poses-a-threat-to-everyone-especially-at-the-rio-olympics/ /zikatruth/2016-06-20-the-zika-virus-poses-a-threat-to-everyone-especially-at-the-rio-olympics/#respond Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://162.244.66.231/zikatruth/2016-06-20-the-zika-virus-poses-a-threat-to-everyone-especially-at-the-rio-olympics The Zika virus outbreak in South America has caused thousands of cases of microcephaly, where an infant is born with an unusually small head and brain. The threat is so serious that the CDC has issued a level 2 alert for anyone attending the Olympic Games in Brazil this summer. The World Health Organization has also issued travel precautions.

(Article by Steven Salzberg, republished from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2016/06/20/the-zika-virus-poses-a-threat-to-everyone-especially-at-the-rio-olympics/#74dc8e014c7c)

Most of the attention has focused on microcephaly, understandably so, but Zika threatens more than just pregnant women. In recent months, the evidence has been building that Zika also causes Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS).

GBS is a rare but terrifying disease in which your own immune system attacks your nerve cells, leading to rapid paralysis and, in some cases, death. With the best available modern care, the death rate is about 5%, but it’s much greater when patients cannot get high-level care.

The first report of Zika as a cause of GBS appeared earlier this year in The Lancet, in a study of a 2013-14 Zika outbreak in French Polynesia (Tahiti). 42 patients were identified with Guillain-Barré syndrome (a startlingly high number for this otherwise rare disease), and 41 of them tested positive for Zika. None of those patients died, but the study provided convincing evidence that Zika was the cause of GBS.

This year, reports have emerged of a sharp increase in the number of cases of Guillain-Barré in South America, where the Zika outbreak is most severe. As the Washington Postreported back in February, the small town of Turbo, in Colombia, which normally sees at most one case per year, has already seen five cases, three of them fatal.

In response to this threat, a group of more than 200 doctors from around the world has signed an open letter to the WHO (read it here) that

call[s] for the Rio 2016 Games to be postponed and/or moved to another location—but not cancelled—in the name of public health.

The letter points out that Rio is at the epicenter of the Zika epidemic, with 32,000 cases so far, and the holding the games there–with all the associated travel involved–may accelerate the spread of the dangerous Brazilian strain.

The newly emerging risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome makes it clear that Zika virus presents a threat to everyone. The Rio Olympics are likely to make it worse. Anyone planning to visit Rio for the Games should take all the precautions they can, but the best plan might be simply to stay home.

Steven Salzberg is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University.

Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2016/06/20/the-zika-virus-poses-a-threat-to-everyone-especially-at-the-rio-olympics/#74dc8e014c7c
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