
There are now 234 pregnant women in the US with confirmed Zika virus - ComputerGuru
http://www.sciencealert.com/so-far-234-pregnant-women-have-contracted-zika-in-the-us-says-cdc
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Herodotus38
A really good source for both lay public and health care providers is the CDC
(perhaps not a surprise). They do a good job of explaining what we know and
importantly what we don't know. See for example:

[http://www.cdc.gov/zika/pregnancy/question-
answers.html](http://www.cdc.gov/zika/pregnancy/question-answers.html)

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ComputerGuru
I'm just surprised at the lack of basic, non-identifying info being presented
here. No mention of general locale, no mention of how far along in terms of
percentages these women are, no mention of travel history statistics for the
group, no information on whether or not the two deaths were from pregnancy-
related causes, no info on how many non-microcephaly births, no info on
anything, period. What's the point of this other than to spread hysteria?

~~~
mmastrac
This is in an earlier comment below, but I think it's worth repeating:

"We can’t provide a lot of information about where these women are in their
pregnancy. We don’t want to inadvertently disclose information about difficult
decisions these women are making about their pregnancies"

~~~
randyrand
Sort of off topic, but it seems were much more concerned about privacy when it
involves women.

I wonder if there's any merit to this hypothesis.

~~~
mapt
There is a large fraction of the country that regards termination of pregnancy
as literal child murder. Severe microcephaly is as good a reason to terminate
a 'viable' pregnancy as can be found, with care for a microcephalic child
costing far greater wealth than the average family has in their future; Most
of the women not being identified will choose to abort.

"Abortion is murder" is something we've been deadened to through repetition,
but the literal proclamation of abortion to be "murder", and "murder" to be
murder, ethically requires extreme measures to fight it, to the believer. It
is only through utter cowardice or lack of true belief that we manage to
operate abortion clinics with a rate of violent assault in the last few
decades cumulative of around 10%. These people are potentially dangerous, but
within a family are also likely to do things like shunning/disowning relatives
or seeking a divorce if this info becomes public.

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mirimir
Zika was first detected in Uganda. It seems that the first HIV cases occurred
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). And EVD near the border of
South Sudan and DRC.

That's also pretty much where we humans came from. Is that just random
coincidence? Or is there perchance a reservoir of sequences that are well
prepared to mess with humans?

~~~
frozenport
Like most invasive species, humans face significantly less predation and
parasitism in foreign lands.

The mosquito in question doesn't live in colder environments, this is the same
reason why Massachusetts doesn't have a Malaria problem.

"Although the climate in some newly invaded areas is conducive to reproduction
and survival of this mosquito, in other areas, harsh winters may prevent
survival of overwintering eggs into the spring." See
[http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/06/07/jme.t...](http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/06/07/jme.tjw072)

~~~
mirimir
> Like most invasive species, humans face significantly less predation and
> parasitism in foreign lands.

Right. Good point!

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srtjstjsj
> "We’re sort of in a hard place," Jamieson told The New York Times. "We can’t
> provide a lot of information about where these women are in their pregnancy.
> We don’t want to inadvertently disclose information about difficult
> decisions these women are making about their pregnancies."

Is there a point where the impending public health crisis becomes more
important than patient privacy?

~~~
warmwaffles
Yes, because you can not make one exception otherwise it will be used all the
time to circumvent patient doctor privilege. The old saying, "give them an
inch and they take a mile" is exactly this case.

~~~
srtjstjsj
Of course you can make one exception. That's why it's called an exception. The
law is chock-full of exceptions, often carefully written to delineate their
scope.

~~~
warmwaffles
That is a terrible justification and sets a bad precedence

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wmil
I think it's worth reminding people that we do have the ability to wipe out
specific mosquito species, and that aedes aegypti is an invasive one that
spreads most Zika.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti)

[http://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/feb/10/should-we-
wipe...](http://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/feb/10/should-we-wipe-
mosquitoes-off-the-face-of-the-earth)

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ljoshua
One important thing to note is that as of today's data, the CDC is not
reporting any locally acquired cases [1] in the States (though that does not
apply to US Territories). It is possible to infer, though certainly not
conclusive, that the current pregnancy-related cases are either due to travel-
related or sexual transmission, or possibly local if the pregnancy is in a
Territory.

[1] [http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-
states.html](http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html)

Stay safe everyone.

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justintocci
I find zika to be problematic. I get that we're all supposed to be scared, and
that we should not have children. But there seems to be a severe lack of facts
that reminds me of the recent ebola situation. It turns out, ebola isn't very
contagious, nor is it deadly to first world countries. I get the feeling zika
is being hyped for reasons that have a lot more to do with cya than actual
facts in evidence.

~~~
lujim
Isn't Ebola very contagious, just not airborne? Also didn't a strain of it go
airborne in a primate enclosure Virginia in the 1990s? Asking because I
thought that was the case but can't remember. I read "In the Hot Zone" a few
years back but don't remember the details.

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kwikiel
"Set in 2027, when no child has been born for 18 years and science is at loss
to explain the reason, African and East European societies collapse and their
dwindling populations migrate to England and other wealthy nations."

Terrific but possible scenario. Quote from "children of man synopsis"

~~~
tathougies
The idea that Zika is somehow worse than the numerous common infections that
cause microcephaly and birth defects (cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, chicken
pox) is prima facie radiculous. Zika is native to and widespread in Africa
which seems to be having no problem increasing its population. Additionally
it's been present in Asia for quite a while and although it caused the same
problems, maternal immunity basically negates the problem of a fetus catching
the disease in utero. Honestly the best thing we could do is to get our
children infected and immune.

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hackney
To me this simply raises the case of why abortion should always be a choice.

~~~
cloudjacker
If you ever find yourself in an awkward but enlightened moment of actually
reading Roe v Wade, you won't fall for that false dilemma ever again.

The entire case doesn't hold up to our standards of legal review, and isn't
even capable of happening today.

~~~
hackney
More clearly I meant the right choice, but still a choice.

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nefitty
I wonder how big this number has to get to light the fire under Congress's
ass.

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jewbacca
To do what?

~~~
ghshephard
Release some money to start combatting Zika? Educating people to start using
Deet, tracking clusters, hiring people to start eradicating standing pools of
water, doing more comprehensive tracking of impact on people, babies, and, if
it actually gets really bad, taking heightened measures to wipe out mosquitos
that are vectors in more problematic areas - including releasing male
mosquitos that are unlikely to fertilize larvae that will grown into yet more
zika passing mosquitoes.

