zika

A case of Zika infection by transfusion has been reported by Brazillian health officials. This shouldn't be terribly surprising, since if it can be transmitted by mosquitos, a pint of infected blood seems like a sure bet. Although this may be obvious, it raises a range of questions that are less so -- but important.
The mosquitoes causing all the headaches these days are not key pollinators, or any sort of indicator species. They are simply pests, and 3,400 other mosquito species could fill the ecological gap just fine. It's time for vector-borne disease factories to go.
A company in India began working on a vaccine for a disease that hasn't been in India for decades 9 months before it exploded in South America? It's okay to be skeptical.
The ABC News affiliate in Denver and The New American talked to Dr. Gil Ross about the Zika virus, and how a pesticide that hasn't been used in the United States for over 40 years might be the solution.
There have been several cases of sexually transmitted Zika virus. Will this be the exception or the norm? It's too soon to tell, but two other viruses provide us with some clues.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been declared a global public health crisis by the World Health Organization, but the agency did not say how to effectively fight it. One way would be to allow widespread use of DDT, which eradicated that same mosquito during the 20th century.
What will cause environmentalists to suddenly accept science? The Zika virus. That and more in this weekend's ACSH update.
While many viruses create fear, the Zika virus is scarier in some ways because it affects unborn children and causes severe birth defects. While it rarely kills, it cannot be killed, because it isn't alive in the first place. No virus is. And except for supportive treatment, there isn't much that medicine can do about them.
In Brazil, a new viral infection called Zika is doing great harm. It's causing an epidemic of severe birth defects, so much so that doctors are advising women to delay becoming pregnant. There is no treatment for it, although in non-pregnant victims the symptoms are not terribly severe.