How do we stop the spread of the Zika virus?
The Zika virus is "spreading explosively", according to the World Health Organization. How do we stop the spread of the virus? What kind of threat do you think Zika poses? Is enough being done to prevent it? Weigh in via CBC Forum.
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Hello there and welcome to CBC Forum, our new attempt to encourage a different kind of conversation on our website.
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Today, we are discussing the rapid spread of the Zika virus. On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared that the mosquito-borne virus was "spreading explosively", estimating that it could infect three to four million people this year. It is linked to microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads.CBC News has been covering the spread of the virus extensively. You can read all about it in our explainer below.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus is drawing global attention due to its rapid spread and its possible connection to a rare neurological birth defect. -
And now, we want to hear from you. Weigh in and let us know what you think.How do we stop the spread of the virus? What kind of threat do you think Zika poses? Is enough being done to prevent it?
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This is definitely something we should all be taking seriously. I feel that the very first thing Canada should do is ban ALL travel to and from the affected country/countries. No Canadians should be going there and then bringing something horribly contagious back home. In the 1950's, when a child was sick, they actually quarantined the entire house -- no one in, no one out. They did that for a reason. So why would we NOT do the same when it's on a massively larger scale? Human travel is how other countries get infected with all sorts of dangerous things, and it's completely irresponsible to think that Canada hasn't already placed some sort of travel ban. Come on, guys. This can get really serious, really fast. -
Let me get this straight. They created a GM mosquito to get rid of another disease .Dropped it on the population and didn't give any thought on how to stop it if it did harm to the population.
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In terms of travel warnings, Health Minister Jane Philpott urged Canadians to consult government advisories before going south. She also said that pregnant women should avoid countries where the virus is spreading.
Canadian and U.S. health officials are urging pregnant women to consider postponing travel to countries dealing with an outbreak of mosquito-borne Zika virus following reports of birth defects in children born to women in Brazil infected with the virus.Pregnant women in Canada, U.S., urged to postpone travel to Zika-hit countries -
Here's a thought from forum commenter, Sam.
I'm hearing more about Guillain Barre possibly associated with Zika. Venezuela Health Minister said they have 255 cases, with 55 in intensive care, suspected link to Zika, she said. Travellers should be made more aware of this slight possibility.
The World Health Organization did mention Guillain-Barré syndrome as one of their reasons why they were "deeply concerned" about Zika. They said there is a possible link between the Zika virus and Guillain-Barré, which causes tingling and muscle weakness that can spread to the respiratory muscles. -
This week Brazil is starting the biggest event in the country, carnaval. The popular cities receive millions of tourists in the streets with hot weather, high humidity, bad sanitary conditions and lots of drunk people. It's the event that lots of people do unprotected sex (we even have a massive campaign for people at least use condoms!). And people are not for a second worried about zica, dengue, chikunguya, HIV, flu, economic problems or any other things. People in Brazil save the whole year for this week. The government has bigger issues right now and they are not doing anything to stop zica, they don't even have money to combat the mosquitoes. And in poor places like periferia people are on their own. Hundreds of mothers with kids being born with microcefalia are on their own, government has no infrastructure to support them.
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Since the outbreak centers are the exact same places we released GM mosquito's, we could start by not releasing GM mosquito's. That would be a great start.
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Was reading earlier, 2000 women in Columbia with Zika and pregnant. Sucks big time that they created this GM mosquito!!
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Here's a response from forum commenter, Cass Morrison. Thoughts?
There is no GM mosquito, simply a strain of mosquito that is not in Canada. We don't have a lot of the traditional tropical diseases because of it. And the virus causes birth defects in fetuses because it affects humans while they are developing.
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Similarly, CBC Radio's Day 6 had an interesting piece on this week's episode about genetically modified mosquitoes and the Zika virus. Have a listen.
A British company has created a genetically modified version of the aedes aegypti mosquito, the main carrier of both Zika and dengue.
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From what I've read, it is no threat here in Canada since it is transmitted by a mosquito that doesn't exist in our climate and isn't transmitted between humans.
Kudos to U.S. and Canadian researchers for working on a vaccine. -
The choice will be amazing :
1) Vaccine against Zika
2) GM mosquitoes to eradicate the virus
3) Big pharma selling pills to reduce symptoms and risks
4) Bills Gates giving millions to fight it (with bed nets&stuff)
5) Refuse everything and catch it, but for now we don't care since human transmission was not observe -
I have no answer to the problem but I'm very much against mass fumigation. Putting that into our air will do harm especially to children. Also I believe they need more research regarding this virus and panicking people does nothing to help.
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This is going to come up repeatedly.
There is a widely circulating claim on the net that the Oxitec GM Aedes aegypti mosquites are responsible for this. The "evidence" claimed is that the release site is at the "epicenter" of the Zika outbreak and microcephaly in Brazil. Apparently this all started with one person.
That person couldn't even find the right place on a map! The map shown with the claim has a big red arrow pointing to Juazeiro do Norte. There is considerable Zika and microcephaly reported around that area, but the highest incidence is still well to the east. The actual site of release was Juazeiro, Bahia, which is about 270 km away from Juazeiro do Norte. There is low incidence of Zika there, and between 2 and 10 cases of microcephaly in the most recent report. The mosquitoes have a range of less than half a kilometre.
The whole GM mosquito claim is based on very bad "research". -
Canadian and U.S. scientists are currently developing a vaccine for the Zika virus and they say it could very well be ready for use before the end of the year. What do you think of that? What do you think the state of the virus will be by the end of the year?A vaccine for the Zika virus in development by U.S. and Canadian scientists could be available for emergency use before the end of the year, possibly making it the first, one of the lead scientists said on Thursday.
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Where is the talk about a Lyme vaccine? Lyme has become a worldwide epidemic, now transmitted by horseflies and through sexual contact and from mother to baby. Often misdiagnosed, it is the hush hush epidemic because our healthcare system cannot afford to treat it properly. Lyme is here across Canada, the US and Europe. Zika is not here. Yet.
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.@CBCNews @TorontoStar #Vaughan We need to get rid of Storm Mgmt Pond Reservoirs in #Toronto #GTA Breeds #Zika #ZikaVirus #WestNile #cp24by DrBianca84 via twitter 1/31/2016 6:06:40 PM -
Thanks for your comments so far. Remember you can also weigh in via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We will pull your best comments from there into this forum as well.You have offered your thoughts on how to stop the spread of the virus. I would like to hear a little more about what you think of the threat that Zika poses ... is it severe? Is it nothing to be worried about? Is enough being done to prevent it? Let me know what you think.
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I am Canadian and live in Bahia, Brazil. The threat is real especially that Brazil does not have the medical facilities in remote regions and the infrastructure necessary to control the spread of the virus. -
I do not think mosquito repellant is the answer to such a serious problem as Zika, Dengue fever, yellow fever and Malaria. As all of these diseases are caused by the same three variety of mosquitos out of more than 4,000 other varieties, I call for eradication of these three types of mosquitos. We have put many, many animals into extinction. Let's us put these three types of mosquitos into extinction as well.
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Karly Just, who lives in Saskatoon, just cancelled a trip to Mexico with her husband over concerns about the Zika virus. Just is four months pregnant. She says she didn't want to take the risk.What are your thoughts on the travel risk? Is there a risk?A Saskatoon woman and her husband have cancelled a trip to Mexico over concerns about the Zika virus.
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Take all preventative measures, but this is only a start. Offer to facilitate early testing of all pregnant women in athe target areas. Offer abortion services where appropriate. This may be considered draconian but is probably necessary.
Durgan -
We are about to wrap up this forum conversation for the day. Any final comments on the virus before we close? Comments, discussions, thoughts are all welcome.
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Could it be true that Zika isn't the problem at all? Is it possible that these mosquitoes always carried Zika? Is it possible that the GM Mosquitoes Oxitec released in Brazil have somehow transferred their modified reproductive cycle Gene through the Zika virus to humans? It would seem that where they released those GM insects compared to a map of reported birth defects overlay each other on maps. Is that merely a coincidence?
Just look at what they did specifically to the genes of those mosquitoes and compare the effects on their reproductive cycle with what is happening to these babies. Something tells me this all has more to do with "human intervention" and humans screwing with nature. Than a Zika virus that for half a century has shown no connection to birth defects in the past.
Oxitec released their mosquitoes in July last year. The first reports of birth defects were around October 2015. Coincidence? I'm not sure, I'm no geneticist. -
And that's all the time we have for this discussion.Thanks for all your comments, suggestions and personal anecdotes during today's CBC Forum discussion. The forum format is our new experimental attempt to encourage a different kind of conversation on the site.I'll be rounding up some of your best and most insightful comments and including them in an article which will be posted on CBCNews.ca later today.We'll be back with another forum discussion later today.
