Indie music sensation Sufjan Stevens reveals he has Guillain–Barré Syndrome and he has dedicated his new album to his deceased gay partner.
If the Chinese virus is enormously dangerous to people with certain medical conditions and those over 70 years old, but a much smaller danger to those under 70, then shutting down the entire country indefinitely is probably a bad idea.
With the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issuing their first warning for Americans to avoid travel to an American neighborhood, the U.S. is on the verge of a Zika pandemic that may soon require extreme measures, including aerial pesticide spraying.
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, insisted that the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus “is not a big issue” days after Brazilian researchers warned the disease has mutated into something “more dangerous.”
The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking to transfer $510 million in money allocated to fighting the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in west Africa to preventing a similar outbreak of Zika in the United States, officials announced Wednesday.
The government of Colombia has confirmed 32 cases of infant birth defects tied to the Zika virus, while a total number of 50 cases are investigated for ties to the disease. While birth defects tied to Zika have been rampant in Brazil, these are the first cases outside the epicenter of the Zika outbreak currently underway in South America.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously believed, especially male carriers infecting women. WHO also reported mounting evidence for the connection between Zika, birth defects, and neurological disorders, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome.
The Brazilian government announced that it is considering imposing fines on private landowners who do not allow public health officials on their property to eliminate breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus, according to various news reports.
The government of Venezuela has confirmed three deaths directly related to the Zika pandemic sweeping Latin America, while medical experts throughout the country report an alarming rise in the number of cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disease Zika is suspected of triggering in certain patients.
Brazil’s tourism industry is already suffering from the international alarm over the Zika virus outbreak that has infected 1.5 million people, with tour operators and hotel bookers experiencing an increase in the number of cancellations, particularly on the part of pregnant women who were planning to travel.
An American researcher, who identified the Zika virus as a potential threat in 2009, tells the journal Wired that it would have been impossible to attain funding to research Zika exclusively five years ago, as few believed it had the potential to cause an outbreak as large as that currently underway in Latin America.
The radiation sterilization of male mosquitoes is being studied by an entomologist as a potential biological weapon to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak in the Americas.
The threat the Zika virus poses to Americans is more serious than the federal government claims, according to at least one mosquito expert.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Red Cross is relying on “self-deferral” to prevent its blood supply from being infected by the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
Media outlets in Venezuela are reporting that at least eleven patients nationwide have died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, though the government’s Health Ministry has yet to report any of the cases, and most appear linked to the Zika virus pandemic ravaging Latin America.
If Zika–or a possibly mutated strain–can also spread through sex, then it poses a risk of another HIV/Aids pandemic.
