Zika and adult brain damage

[SV DestinyAscen]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

If you were living in Puerto Rico or Miami Beach then you would have a different view of the risk I suppose. By the way. Becoming infected has nothing to do with being healthy or not. Many infected have not been immuno deficient. Otherwise healthy mothers became infected and have given birth to their badly deformed babies.

You also say you are not worried because you are done with procreation. Please read the report showing researchers are showing that brain damage can be caused by Zika in otherwise healthy ADULTS. Not just pregnant women.

Pardon my blunt words, but I'm trying to make a earnest genuine effort to communicate.

Read my post re Zika, particularly re risk of infection * risk of specific consequence. Few diseases carry no risk of death and severe injury, but we logically quantify risk by determining the exposure needed to become infected, and risk of the specific consequence.

Your replies basically ignores the probability, and fixate on the worst outcome.

My father was a healthy man until 90, when he got bitten by a tick and four years later he was dead. Lyme's disease is difficult because it requires treatment, but is often missed during diagnosis.

Zika is endemic and has infected entire continents, it isn't a new disease, and with all diseases that involve the CNS, yes it can cause brain damage. But the odds are extremely low amongst those infected.

Like I've said before, avoid unnecessary mosquito bites, and if unfortunately you get an infection, most recover without ill effect and suffer a little bit of fatigue. Current research shows you'll be immune for life.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by SV DestinyAscen

Pardon my blunt words, but I'm trying to make a earnest genuine effort to communicate.

Read my post re Zika, particularly re risk of infection * risk of specific consequence. Few diseases carry no risk of death and severe injury, but we logically quantify risk by determining the exposure needed to become infected, and risk of the specific consequence.

Your replies basically ignores the probability, and fixate on the worst outcome.

My father was a healthy man until 90, when he got bitten by a tick and four years later he was dead. Lyme's disease is difficult because it requires treatment, but is often missed during diagnosis.

Zika is endemic and has infected entire continents, it isn't a new disease, and with all diseases that involve the CNS, yes it can cause brain damage. But the odds are extremely low amongst those infected.

Like I've said before, avoid unnecessary mosquito bites, and if unfortunately you get an infection, most recover without ill effect and suffer a little bit of fatigue. Current research shows you'll be immune for life.

DestinyAscen. Thank you and I do take what you are saying well. I also agree that there are many other diseases to be concerned with. I am concerned about the enormous socio economic impact Zika may well have.

I am not debating if mass fear is logically based or not. I am saying that mass Zika fear can have real life affects beyond those infected. Such as tourist related businesses and boat charterers. To deny this possibility/probability is to put ones head in the sand.

I'm very sorry to hear about your fathers passing. No one expects to be done in by a mosquito or a tick. But it happens.

What has me really concerned is the effect Zika may have on infected adults. Up until now all the talk around Zika was about how it affects fetuses and subsequently babies. If it also can now cause brain damage to adults it is a far more impactful disease.

I wish everyone good health and I certainly don't want to overly panic myself or others. Lets hope this epidemic will burn itself out. But I will say once again, many thought AIDS would burn itself out but it didn't. And it spread from once class of people to the general population. They are now saying that AIDS is once again becoming a resurgent disease. The reason I bring up AIDS is because it didn't burn itself out and is still a serious threat if you practice unsafe sex.

So not all diseases do burn out and disappear. Some take 100's of thousand or even millions down.

[SaltyMonkey]

Zika virus is a concern.

What's more of a concern is a bombardment of hundreds or thousands of emerging viruses all at once which will swamp our ability to research and react to them, all morphing and changing and intermingling together to wipe out our planet...

...except for a small number of short monkeys who talk on and on to much on and on and very beautiful girls who have no choice but to adore him.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Zika virus is a concern.

What's more of a concern is a bombardment of hundreds or thousands of emerging viruses all at once which will swamp our ability to research and react to them, all morphing and changing and intermingling together to wipe out our planet...

...except for a small number of short monkeys who talk on and on to much on and on and very beautiful girls who have no choice but to adore him.

I read somewhere that AIDS came from cross species sex with a monkey. Is there something you want to tell us Salty Monkey?

I say eat bananas if you want to live long and prosper.

[SaltyMonkey]

I am pretty much sure AIDS came from singing bats.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

I am pretty much sure AIDS came from singing bats.

OR was that batty singers?

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

Since the virus affects part of the brain is important in learning and memory there could be a dramatic increase in second marriages for cruisers.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

DestinyAscen. Thank you and I do take what you are saying well. I also agree that there are many other diseases to be concerned with. I am concerned about the enormous socio economic impact Zika may well have.

I am not debating if mass fear is logically based or not. I am saying that mass Zika fear can have real life affects beyond those infected. Such as tourist related businesses and boat charterers. To deny this possibility/probability is to put ones head in the sand.

I'm very sorry to hear about your fathers passing. No one expects to be done in by a mosquito or a tick. But it happens.

What has me really concerned is the effect Zika may have on infected adults. Up until now all the talk around Zika was about how it affects fetuses and subsequently babies. If it also can now cause brain damage to adults it is a far more impactful disease.

I wish everyone good health and I certainly don't want to overly panic myself or others. Lets hope this epidemic will burn itself out. But I will say once again, many thought AIDS would burn itself out but it didn't. And it spread from once class of people to the general population. They are now saying that AIDS is once again becoming a resurgent disease. The reason I bring up AIDS is because it didn't burn itself out and is still a serious threat if you practice unsafe sex.

So not all diseases do burn out and disappear. Some take 100's of thousand or even millions down.

Ok, why is CDC in a panic? As of this past Monday, confirmed adults can not only get the virus, but can pass it on, and not just via sex. It also appears to basically cause a form of dementia in about 25% of the adult cases that have been actually studied via autopsies. Its now established in Miami and spreading fast, very fast. The brain basically rots via abscesses, big ones, and does this quickly and painfully. So not good at all.

[FollowingCs]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

Sorry to say but you can't say that Zika is less threatening to a healthy adult than lyme, denge and west nile. I suppose if you think adult brain damage is nothing to worry about then you could say it though.

Isn't this report about a mouse study, and it specifically says the effects on humans is unknown.

"There are still many unanswered questions, including exactly how translatable findings in this mouse model are to humans."

"Nonetheless, these findings raise the possibility that Zika is not simply a transient infection in adult humans, and that exposure in the adult brain could have long-term effects."

Some of this medical math drives me crazy. It reminds me of when the ultrasound revealed a .05% chance that our kid had Down Syndrome, so we underwent an embryo synthesis test that had a 0.5% chance to abort the baby..... what the hell were we thinking. But the doc scared my wife enough, so we did it. (Child is fine by the way, and finally out of the house.)

~ Following Cs ~

[Island Time O25]

Just another health scare de jour. Whatever happened to swine flu, ebola, killer bees and a myriad of other very popular in the past scares?

Each time a new scare is announced I can just hear the mounting calls for "additional funding, more research grants" and whatnot. When I will hear calls from CDC about quarantine and preventing those infected from entering the country - then I'll start worrying. Until then it's just another PR campaign to separate the taxpayers from their $$. Or to deflect our collective attention from the really important things happening around us.

[SaltyMonkey]

Zika virus could have Alzheimer's-like effect in adults | Science | News | The Independent

[dgz3]

If you're talking about blow boater brains, how would anyone know? They move so slowly anyway....

.... the ONLY fact we are certain of is that the research is very preliminary. But every finding announced so far seems a little worse than the last. It's all bad news. And just too soon to predict how bad it's going to get. But I think it has the potential to get REAL bad.

I feel like I'm watching a post apocalyptic sci-fi plague movie. In the opening scenes everyone is going about their daily routine while CNN is reporting 11 new cases of Humanus Extincto on the TV in the background. No one's paying much attention. Next thing you know; zombies everywhere!

Miami bills itself as The Gateway to Latin America. And it is. Tens of thousands of people A DAY enter Miami from Central and South America and the Caribbean. They arrive as tourists, business people, employees, immigrants both legal and illegal, and as legal Hispanic immigrant residents returning from visits to their homeland.
They come on planes, cruise ships, cargo ships, private yachts, inner tube rafts, and on foot. No one's going to stop that. No one has the stomach to quarantine Latin America.

It has been announced that Miami Beach now has a resident mosquito transmitted ZIKA infection area. That makes 35 known mosquito bourn cases in Miami. In two separate areas.
My concern isn't the 35 cases in two areas that they know of. I'm worried about the possibility that there may be 2000 cases (or 10,000) from dozens of areas that they have no clue about.
Miami has a huge homeless population living outdoors. They are, literally, everywhere. Whether you see them or not. And they don't spend money on repellent or go to doctors or talk with or interact with authorities in any way. They will be a significant and uncontrollable vector for ZIKA to travel in.

As for mosquitos only traveling 165 feet in their lifetime.... that's only under their own power. I have been fishing at night 10 miles off Miami and been swarmed by skeeters blown offshore by a west wind. I transported one in my car for 200 miles before I was finally able to kill the little blood sucker.
How many arrive in the holds of ships and planes? The Aedes aegypti mosquito was first brought to the Americas on slave ships from Africa. That vector continues in more modern forms.
And don't forget, it's sexually transmitted, too! No mosquitos? No problem!

Economic impact? Already happening. Bookings are already being cancelled.
The CDC has for the first time in its history issued a travel advisory for an American city.

"Nonetheless, according to CheapFlights.com, searches for flights to area airports on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – the three days after the CDC issued its advisory – were down 10 percent from the same days in the previous three weeks."

1.2 million people in Florida earn a living in a tourism industry that generates 82 billion dollars a year. And much, if not most, of the Caribbean is even more dependent on tourism. Economic impact? Oh, yeah!
As for cruisers getting it; it's only a matter of time. No doubt already happened. Will they stop going to certain areas? Remains to be seen.

I was born in Miami. I lived there for 47 years until I finally determined the place unfit for human habitation. That was 16 years ago, and I have seen nothing since then to alter my opinion of the place. I moved 160 miles north, and now I wonder if it was far enough.

You better believe I'm watching ZIKA very closely. And taking steps to safeguard my property, my family and myself. I fully expect it to be in my community by next year. If not sooner.
Got any mosquitos where you live?

[JPD]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

It is now being reported that researchers have found that the Zika virus may now cause brain damage in adults.

Medical Xpress: Zika infection may affect adult brain cells

If true, and there is no reason to say that it's not, what impact will this have on cruisers?

Could we see places like the Caribbean have a serious drop off in recreational sailing as the fear of Zika moves beyond just childbearing age women?

What impact going forward could this have on the charter businesses? Also let's not forget the overall impact on these Island nations economies.



Personally, I don't think people are thinking seriously about the effect this mosquito born virus could end up having on sailboating. The empty seats at the Rio Olympics could just be a fortaste of the impact on other elective lifestyle choices.

I would think the first to be affected would be the charters. And if the charter companies get hurt the flow on effect throughout the sailboat related industry could be serious.

Now that Zika has now spread to Miami tourist areas such as South Beach, if I owned a tourist related business I would be selling now. Miami is a good example of how this little virus can cause an economic crash locally.

I would really like to hear others thoughts on this. Am I being too negative? Is it something that will have no impact commercially?

Thanks,
Chaya

GUILLAIN-BARRÉ SYNDROME is confirmed in adults and that's pretty serious.

[Cottontop]

There are serious scientists arguing for the complete eradication of mosquitos, using genetic methods. Apparently the thinking is that mosquitos do not fill some essential role in the environment, but who knows.

[surb]

Originally Posted by sailstax

BLUF: No scientific basis and no expert

My feeling is that this is the latest thing to be deathly afraid of and I would be if I were a pregnant woman or a woman trying to get pregnant.

Remember when West Nile Virus fist made it to the US? The "experts" made it sound like a mosquito bite was a death sentence.

Never forget we live in a "state of fear".

This sums it up pretty well.