
Zika Infection May Affect Adult Brain Cells - AngrySkillzz
http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/2016/08/18/zika-infection-may-affect-adult-brain-cells-suggesting-risk-may-not-be-limited-to-pregnant-women/
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barrkel
This is of course a mouse study, on mice bred to have an immune deficiency to
Zika. Immediate extrapolation to humans is a little premature.

I've taken to scanning the NHS's page analyzing health news stories. It's a
very useful antidote to potential sensationalism: they go to the original
source and summarize it fairly clearly.

[http://www.nhs.uk/news/2016/08August/Pages/Animal-
research-s...](http://www.nhs.uk/news/2016/08August/Pages/Animal-research-
suggests-Zika-could-affect-the-adult-brain.aspx)

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nickysielicki
Even without seeing headlines like this, I have felt for a while that Zika is
being downplayed in the media. I remember mass hysteria over mad cow disease,
bird flu, and ebola. Zika seems at least on par with these to me. This disease
is so new that we really don't know how long women have to wait before they
can get pregnant safely-- if ever. We know that it stays latent in semen for a
long time after being infected. Certainly it _sounds_ very scary.

But for the most part it's being reported by the media in a very calm manner
and I see relatively no panic. And that's not to say that mass panic is the
right response to Zika, but just that our global reaction to Zika seems wildly
inconsistent with our super-diseases of yesteryears. When the ebola crisis was
going on across the Atlantic ocean, I saw many normal (albeit misguided)
people in my Midwestern supermarket stockpiling bottled water and dry goods.

Meanwhile with Zika, they're estimating that 25% of Puerto Rico will have the
disease before 2017. And yet I don't feel any real sense of panic in this
country.

What gives? Is society just collectively becoming more reasonable? I find that
hard to believe.

~~~
elif
It's not exactly new ( first studied in 1947
[https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/zika-
statement/](https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/zika-statement/) ), and
basically spreads as quickly as any other STD ( the mosquitos that carry it
typically travel no more than 400 meters
[http://www.who.int/denguecontrol/mosquito/en/](http://www.who.int/denguecontrol/mosquito/en/)
).

~~~
nickysielicki
Be that as it may, global panic relating to HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Mad Cow Disease,
Bird Flu, etc. was not primarily based in scientific reason.

Consider Princess Diana shaking hands with an AIDS patient in _1991_ and how
big of a deal that was.

I'll admit that I don't know much about Zika outside of the few articles I've
read. And I'll also admit that I'm pretty afraid from what I've read. But what
I find most interesting about Zika is this sociological aspect where the
soccer fans in Brazil are chanting "Ziiikaaaa" on goal kicks and it seems like
we've kind of just accepted that this is going to happen. Thousands of babies
have been born with abnormalities already. I'd expect more panic.

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micah_chatt
Guillain-Barré (normally 1 in 100,000, it's 1 out of 5k-10k with Zika ) is
quite scary as well, basically you get locked inside your own body and either
die or have a multi-year recovery if they identify it within the first day or
two. I know two people who have gotten it in the last year:
[http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/apr/04/n...](http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/apr/04/normal-
nightmare/358562/)

~~~
nerdponx
A coworker got this a couple months ago. He was out for a month, very scary

~~~
kordless
My dad got it back in 2000, when we knew very little about it - not that we
know much more today, honestly. It killed him, eventually. Blood clots from
being paralyzed for a few months. Hospital didn't put him on blood thinners.

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kbenson
So, I know disrupting ecologies can have profound consequences that aren't
obvious ahead of time, but let's do a thought experiment. Let's assume we have
a 100% effective way to kill all mosquitoes within 18-24 months.

What are the known disruptions and consequences of this? Do we have ways to
combat problems due to that?

What are the probable/theoretical distuptions and consequences? Do we have
have to combat these?

Not that I'm suggesting we do this, but with our current understanding, how
much trouble do we think it would cause in the case of mosquitoes?

~~~
will_brown
Beyond your question of ecological impact of killing all mosquitoes, as others
mentioned they don't all need to be killed.

Historically, South Florida engaged in annual mosquitoe controlling campaigns.
Essentially aerial spraying during the Summer. These were stopped because of
the budget cuts related to the collapse of the Florida housing market.

Not only did the mosquitoes become intolerable, but before Zika we had a
breakout of mosquitoe transmitted Dengue fever. Moreover, the historical
mosquitoe controlling never killed all mosquitoes but the were effective in
preventing breakouts like Dengue Fever and Zika.

~~~
JosephHatfield
When I was growing up along the Indian River in Florida, they used to send
trucks through the neighborhood on summer nights that sent out huge clouds of
mosquito killing fog. <s>I'm sure that was perfectly safe.</s>

~~~
will_brown
I go up there to Hutchinson Island every Summer, at night on the Beach the
sand flys (no-see-umps) are absolutely brutal.

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sjg007
Basically the reality version of children of men..

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fdgdasfadsf
Original story comes from [http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-
cell/fulltext/S1934-5909%2816%...](http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-
cell/fulltext/S1934-5909%2816%2930252-1)

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caub
still less than smoking

