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CDC: Potentially Zika Carrying Mosquitoes Could Inhabit All but 10 States This Summer

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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated a report last week illustrating on U.S. maps that the two mosquitoes with the potential to transmit the Zika virus, as well as other viruses such as dengue and chikungunya, could inhabit areas this summer that include parts of all but ten states in the United States.

The report on Zika and pregnancy also states: “Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals in the world because of the diseases they spread.” (but see recent article debunking the pregnancy defect link HERE)

Much of U.S. territory–from California to Virginia to Maine–is in the potential range of the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which have the potential to transmit the Zika virus. Of the two, the CDC says, the Aedes aegypti mosquitos are the “more likely to spread viruses.”

The CDC also verified to CNSNews.com via email that the map of potential exposure includes all but 10 states in the United States.

Only Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, and Utah are outside the potential range of both of these mosquitoes. The highlighted areas of the map, the CDC stressed, “represent CDC’s best estimate of the current potential range” of the mosquitoes and “are not meant to represent risk for spread of the disease.” The maps have been updated from “a variety of sources.” (Read more from “CDC: Potentially Zika Carrying Mosquitoes Could Inhabit All but 10 States This Summer” HERE)

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GOP Congressmen to UN: Don’t Use Zika to ‘Overturn Laws of Many Nations Protective of Life at All Stages of Development’

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Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and 50 other House Republicans sent a letter to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein Thursday requesting that he clarify that the U.N. is not “calling for changes to laws protecting the human rights of unborn children” in a statement the commissioner made calling for wider access to “reproductive health services” in response to the Zika virus affecting several Latin American countries.

The congressmen wrote that they were “troubled to read the United Nations Commission on Human Rights February 5, 2016 press release on the recent spread of the Zika virus and its implications for abortion practices.”

The statement from Zeid’s office emphasized that in light of the Zika outbreak “laws and policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services in contravention of international standards, must be repealed…”

The members wrote that they are “concerned” by what the commissioner’s statement “may suggest.”

“We believe the Zika virus should be a time for thoughtful deliberation as local and national governments determine the best policies to curb the spread of this disease,” they wrote. “It should not be an occasion to exploit a genuine public health crisis to advance a political agenda to overturn laws of many nations protective of life at all stages of development.” (Read more from “GOP Congressmen to UN: Don’t Use Zika to ‘Overturn Laws of Many Nations Protective of Life at All Stages of Development'” HERE)

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Infected Women Aborting Babies, but Zika Virus Is Likely Not the Cause of Microcephaly

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In recent weeks, many news reports suggest there may be a strong connection between new cases of microcephaly in Brazil and the Zika virus outbreak there. Predictably, pregnant women infected with Zika are being encouraged to abort their babies. However, several health organizations have noticed issues that may point to other factors in the environment being the actual cause of the increase of Brazilian microcephaly.

The first cases of Zika virus in Brazil were confirmed in May 2015 and most likely came from French Polynesia. The Zika virus affected French Polynesia in 2013 through the first part of 2014 and then receded as quickly as it came. During that outbreak, there were at least 17 central nervous system malformations (microcephaly is a type of central nervous system malformation) seen in newborns which may have been related to the virus. Or they may have been due to something entirely different.

Importantly, microcephaly was never identified as one of the 17 malformations in French Polynesia. Researchers are also finding that many other areas that have had Zika virus outbreaks have not seen increases in microcephaly.

The Brazilian Ministry of Health noticed that the increase of microcephaly was occurring around 9 months after the Zika virus outbreak began and hurriedly concluded the two were likely related. However, researcher Dr. Sandra Mattos disagrees. When the outbreak occurred, she had already been collecting data on newborns in the Northeast Brazilian state of Paraiba. Looking back at her data, she discovered the increase of microcephaly had been occurring long before the initial outbreak of the Zika virus. Dr. Mattos believes that pesticides, malnutrition, drugs and infection by multiple viruses at once are the likely causes of the deformity.

Two other Latin American medical organizations believe that the larvicide (pyriproxyfen) – added to drinking water in 2014 – is the likely cause of the increase in microcephaly and other birth defects. Their findings, combined with the research by Dr. Mattos, strongly implicate factors other than the Zika virus as the true causes of increasing cases of microcephaly.

The Ministry of Health of Brazil – and the US Centers for Disease Control – should take note of this research rather than causing unwarranted panic and increasing abortions by suggesting that the rapidly-spreading Zika virus is likely to cause an explosion in birth defects across Latin America and the southern United States.

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Hawaii Governor Signs Emergency Proclamation on Zika, Other Illnesses

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The governor of Hawaii has signed an emergency proclamation regarding Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses.

Gov. David Ige signed the declaration Friday as “a preventative measure” to guard against Zika, dengue fever and other diseases, his office said in a statement.

The action follows the recent decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take emergency steps to prepare for and mitigate the Zika risk, the statement said.

“There have been no locally acquired Zika cases in the U.S. or Hawaii, and we’d like to keep it that way,” the new release quoted the governor as saying. “This is about getting in front of the situation across the state.” (Read more from “Hawaii Governor Signs Emergency Proclamation on Zika, Other Illnesses” HERE)

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Hawaii’s Big Island Declares Emergency Over Dengue Fever Infections

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The mayor of Hawaii’s Big Island declared a state of emergency on Monday to deal with a growing outbreak of dengue fever, spread by infected mosquitoes, with 250 cases confirmed over the past four months.

As a result of Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi’s order people on the Big Island will be allowed to resume disposing of old tires in landfills, since tires which are left lying around are a known breeding spot for mosquitoes.

There have been 250 confirmed cases of dengue fever on the island since Oct. 29, making it the largest outbreak in the state since the 1940s, according to the mayor’s declaration and Hawaii health officials . . .

Hawaii Governor David Ige said in a statement he supported the efforts on the Big Island but would not issue a statewide emergency declaration unless the outbreak spread to other islands or expanded to include other diseases, such as the Zika virus. (Read more from “Hawaii’s Big Island Declares Emergency Over Dengue Fever Infections” HERE)

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Zika Virus Now in US, Here’s How It Was Transmitted

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By Fox News. A person in Texas has become infected with the Zika virus through sex, the first case of the illness being transmitted inside the United States, health officials confirmed Tuesday.

Dallas County health officials said the unidentified patient had sexual contact with an infected individual who had returned from Venezuela and fallen ill with Zika. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement saying lab tests confirmed the non-traveling patient was infected with the virus.

“Now that we know Zika virus can be transmitted through sex, this increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about protecting themselves and others,” Zachary Thomson, director of DCHHS, said in a statement. “Next to abstinence, condoms are the best prevention method against any sexually transmitted infections.”

The virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas, is primarily spread through mosquito bites, but investigators had been exploring the possibility it could be sexually transmitted. There was a report of a Colorado researcher who picked up the virus in Africa and apparently spread it to his wife back home in 2008, and it was found in one man’s semen in Tahiti. (Read more from “Zika Virus Now in US, Here’s How It Was Transmitted” HERE)

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How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus

By Dr. Clifford Bassett. Here are some tips on how to do it:

• Stay in places with air conditioning or that use window and door screens to keep mosquitoes outside.

• Remove sources of standing water, which can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

• Remember that mosquitoes that spread Zika virus may be more likely to bite during daytime hours.

• Apply insect repellents and reapply as directed. Check with your doctor about what kinds of repellents are safe to use in pregnancy.

(Read more from “How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus” HERE)

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Zika Virus Outbreak Linked to Release of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes? Disastrous Unintended Consequences Now Threaten Life Across the Americas

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GMO skeptics like myself have been warning for years of the unintended consequences of genetic pollution. Even when genetically engineered organisms are released into the world with the best of intentions, such actions can wreak havoc on the ecosystem and human civilization in ways that simply can’t be foreseen by the world’s most well-meaning scientists . . .

Now we may be seeing the first wave of the horrific destruction that can be unleashed by self-replicating genetically modified organisms. The Zika virus, now spreading with unbridled ferocity, appears to have been caused by the release of genetically engineered mosquitoes that scientists hoped would sharply reduce malaria infections.

“The Zika virus outbreak currently gripping the Americas could have been sparked by the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in 2012,” reports The Mirror. “The insects were engineered by biotechnology experts to combat the spread of dengue fever and other diseases and released into the general population of Brazil in 2012… The Aedes aegypti mosquito sub-species that carries both the Zika virus and dengue was the type targeted with genetically modified mosquitoes” . . .

As pointed out in this fantastic article by AntiMedia.org, the genetic engineers running this massive open-air experiment with mosquitoes and humans failed to consider the impact of antibiotics in the environment caused by their heavy use in agricultural (animal feed) operations. (Read more from “Zika Virus Outbreak Linked to Release of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes… Disastrous Unintended Consequences Now Threaten Life Across the Americas” HERE)

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Zika Virus Could Become ‘Explosive Pandemic’

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By BBC. US scientists have urged the World Health Organisation to take urgent action over the Zika virus, which they say has “explosive pandemic potential”.

Writing in a US medical journal, they called on the WHO to heed lessons from the Ebola outbreak and convene an emergency committee of disease experts.

They said a vaccine might be ready for testing in two years but it could be a decade before it is publicly available.

Zika, linked to shrunken brains in children, has caused panic in Brazil.

Thousands of people have been infected there and it has spread to some 20 countries. (Read more from “Zika Virus Could Become ‘Explosive Pandemic'” HERE)

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Scientists Plan to Use Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes to Fight the Spread of Zika Virus

By Drew Prindle. If you’ve been paying attention to the news for the past week, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the recent Zika virus outbreak by now. The virus, which is currently spreading across the Americas, has been linked to a rare birth defect known as microencephaly, a condition in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and brains. Since the outbreak, there’s been a sizable uptick in infants born with this condition. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 4 million people could be infected with the virus — and to make matters worse, there’s currently no vaccine to help stop it from spreading.

But all is not lost. Biologists are taking a bold new approach to stop the virus from spreading any further. Rather than developing a new vaccine or keeping mosquito populations at bay with insecticides, biotech firm Oxitec plans to fight the spread of Zika by deploying swarms of genetically engineered mosquitoes that will prevent virus-carrying bugs from multiplying.

The science behind it all is immensely complicated, but the overall idea is actually pretty easy to grasp. Basically, Oxitec has created a genetically modified breed of the Aedes aegypti mosquito — the species that is primarily responsible for spreading the Zika virus. This GM version (called OX513A), has been engineered to carry a gene that causes offspring to die before they reach reproductive age. When Oxitec releases these OX513A mosquitoes into the wild, they mate with females and produce offspring that never fully mature — eventually leading to a sizable reduction in the Aedes aegypti populaiton, and (hopefully) a noticeable decrease in the spread of the Zika virus. (Read more from “Scientists Plan to Use Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes to Fight the Spread of Zika Virus” HERE)

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