Zika Virus is the New Ebola
San Diego area may offer glimpse of how Zika could gain foothold here.
It looks like Zika virus is truly the new Ebola.
Concerns about the Zika virus have grown to the point that Utah Congressman Chris Stewart wants to divert funding from the fight against Ebola to use against this latest epidemic.
Stewart says his bill, which would unlock more than a billion dollars for the CDC and National Institute of Health, would ensure the agencies had the resources they need to research and combat the virus.
“Congress has already allocated funding to fight many of the world’s infectious diseases, like Ebola, and I want to make sure this funding can also be used to combat the Zika virus,” Stewart said.
The Zika Response and Safety Act would allow federal agencies to use funds allocated for Ebola research in the fight against the Zika virus, according to a press release from Stewart’s office. Stewart states that of the $2.4 billion allocated for Ebola research, about $1.4 billion was unused as of September of 2015.
Dallas County Health and Human Services has confirmed acase of Zika infection that occurred on American soil…through sexual transmission.
“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,” Dallas County Health and Human Services director Zachary Thompson said. “Next to abstinence, condoms are the best prevention method against any sexually transmitted infections.”
Health officials cautioned that sexual transmission of Zika is still likely to be uncommon in the U.S., and the greater infection risk will come from mosquitoes who bite infected individuals and pass the virus on to others.
The American Red Cross is also beginning to quarantine blood from donors who have recently been to infected regions, and is asking potential donors to refrain if they have recently been in those areas.
In response to the Zika outbreak, the American Red Cross is asking people to avoid donating blood if they traveled to Latin America or the Caribbean in the past 28 days.
Blood donors who develop symptoms of Zika, which is spread through mosquito bites, should contact the Red Cross within two weeks so their blood can be quarantined, the organization said in a statement Wednesday.
And while transmission of the virus through blood or sexual activity is possible, infection via mosquito bites is likelier. We San Diegans got some grim news regarding Zika from a local official:
The Tijuana River Valley could become a Zika virus stronghold unless it’s cleaned up immediately, according to Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina.
The valley is already home to several species of mosquitoes, including the Asian Tiger mosquito, considered to be the primary carrier of the Zika virus.
…Dedina, who is also the Executive Director of environmental conservation firm Wildcoast, insists the biggest problem are the thousands of tires strewn around the valley that accumulate water and act as breeding grounds for the virus-carrying mosquitoes.
“Those breeding grounds are areas with lots of waste water, tires, and plastic and we seem to have that in profusion here, in addition to the two species of mosquito — yellow fever mosquito and Asian tiger mosquito — that can transmit Zika,” Dedina told FOX 5.
His concern is justified. San Diego has been having problems with another pathogen, West Nile Virus. This is mosquito-borne virus can cause a variety of symptoms, and the worst cases can lead to meningitis, encephalitis, and death. San Diego County reported 31 cases last year, and 5 of those infected died of the resulting illness.
Dedina concluded with chilling warning: “This can’t be like Flint and it can’t be like Brazil, where everyone knew what was happening and no one did anything about it.”
He’s requesting funding and assistance from the EPA for a clean-up project that begins next month.
Given the EPA’s recent history of success, I anticipate we will be seeing more cases of homegrown Zika in addition to the one in Texas.
And my hometown may be the next epicenter.
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Comments
Uh, hold up there on the hysteria, Missy.
In most cases, Zika illness is mild with symptoms lasting less than a week. The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes. Hardly an ‘ebola class’ epidemic.
The greatest danger is to pregnant women and their developing fetus. Zika can cause serious birth defects.
But since Obama, Hillary, and others of their leftist ilk champion the murder of tens of thousands of unborn babies every year, with demands that tax payers fund this slaughter, I doubt this craven administration will be quick to protect anyone who can’t vote.
My take, as well.
But, OTOH, we don’t need it here if we can hold it back.
Perhaps you don’t have friends living off the Tijuana River Valley who are pregnant? I do.
I am looking forward to seeing if our government responds to the crisis with more than committee meetings and platitudes.
I wonder if it is even remotely feasible to shred those tires?
Thanks for saving me the effort of fixing the blog post, LocomotiveBreath1901. (steamers are cool)
The common cold, caught by nose entry of the air borne Rhinovirus, is only slightly less of an issue than the effects of a Zika virus infection.
It Is Not The New Flu Either.
I have a pregnant wife with a developing fetus!
My county has 3 (or is it 5 now) confirmed cases (and god knows how many uncounted cases because the effects of Zika are mild and there are no real checks at the border).
We also have a lot of Mosquitos and it’s been rainy lately.
We asked for a test in passing, (because we have government employee Heath care and everything is free), but got blown off.
It is very scary to basically be a sitting duck if this virus becomes an outbreak like it is in Brazil (where the World Cup could get cancelled).
Hopefully the borders get secured before it is too late.
Some of my friends are pregnant. And paranoid, which is understandable.
Hey, if this is what it takes to *finally* get a consensus on mosquitoes and swampland as a *bad* thing that public health agencies should be eradicating rather than a *good* thing that environmental protection agencies should be preserving… I’m *all* in favor of some bad science and innumerate risk assessment.
Forty million+ dead since Silent Spring was published. Enough is enough.
My wife and I are pregnant (technically just she is) and have a family vacation planned to Florida in March that we do every year with her extended family. As we get closer to that time, the chances of us cancelling are getting higher.
I’d cancel if I were you.
Too bad we can’t just use DDT to get rid of the skeeters.
A few passes with a crop duster and they’re gone.
Fortunately, under abortion rites, women can abort their developing baby at the fetal stage and under some liberal interpretations beyond.
That said, the “green” lobbyists (i.e. environmentalists) have blood on their hands. But, so does the congruence movement and progressive moralists before, and Obama today, who together promoted and defended a global HIV crisis.
The following is a script from “60 Minutes Presents: Making a Difference” which aired on Jan. 24, 2016.
Take the 2011 movie “Contagion.” Skoll took what he’d learned through his charitable work in pandemics and funded a movie to warn people that a virus could kill billions.
[Jude Law in “Contagion”: On day one there were two people, and then four, and then 16. In three months, it’s a billion. That’s where we’re headed.]
Charlie Rose: And what did the movie accomplish for you?
Jeffrey Skoll: In many ways, it put pandemics back on the map, that the public realized how important our public health organizations are, for example. A number of politicians that had seen the movie who were ready to vote on cuts to funding to the CDC recognized that that would be a bad idea.