Steverino
black sheep
Man, watching the news, this is a very serious problem. No vaccine.
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/disease-qa.html
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/disease-qa.html
Zika virus.
- Thread starter Steverino
- Start date
We have known about Zika virus since the late 1940's. I have samples in my freezer from a 1977 mouse inoculation at the CDC. It just used to be a virus seen in Africa, not in the Americas...and never really in large outbreaks until the last decade or so.
mongooz
.
and how are you fairing?
mongooz
.
well.....'we' the medical community may have, but 'we' the general USA public hasn't.
(at least i've never heard of it until this last week. and i pay better attention than most.)
Business as usual. We are working on finally building a reporter virus and infectious clone to look for drugs to treat this thing. The recent uptick in interest from funding agencies will hopefully get us some money to do more with the virus.
I get that, it is a pretty exotic virus, even among the exotic flaviviruses. Prior to a big outbreak in the pacific islands a few years back, it was a virus isolated from a monkey in Africa that we knew infected lots of people in Africa from the presence of antibodies, but no one knew much more about it. When I saw the first reports of Zika in Brazil I was really surprised. A colleague who works on viruses didn't know what Zika even was, so don't feel bad.
2manband
Kick Henry Jackassowski
1 wife contracted what we're pretty sure was Zika virus when we were in brazil in may (theres no commercial test so we arent 100% sure) We were in an area where it was present and after returning home, about 4 or 5 days later, her symptoms were spot on. We ended up in the ER where nobody had any clue what was going on.
This was back before anybody knew about the birth defects and the disease was still pretty new in Brazil. Totally unknown here. We literally may have been the first case in the US
Worst part- that was our babymoon trip. She was pregnant....first trimester
Im not super religious but I feel blessed that our daughter was born Aok. Her head size is actually slightly above average. We are still kinda concerned that little Marisol could have some kind of long term effect, but we're pretty much through the shitting bricks phase. I feel like we dodged a bullet.
So yeah, fuck Zika in its meathead face
This was back before anybody knew about the birth defects and the disease was still pretty new in Brazil. Totally unknown here. We literally may have been the first case in the US
Worst part- that was our babymoon trip. She was pregnant....first trimester
Im not super religious but I feel blessed that our daughter was born Aok. Her head size is actually slightly above average. We are still kinda concerned that little Marisol could have some kind of long term effect, but we're pretty much through the shitting bricks phase. I feel like we dodged a bullet.
So yeah, fuck Zika in its meathead face
Glad everything turned out OK. Hard to really say if it was Zika, as the symptoms of many flaviviruses and alphaviruses are similar...and many of these viruses are really common insect borne viruses of the tropics. Certainly could have been. I doubt I could tell what virus someone had from these genera without a RT-PCR or ELISA test.
2manband
Kick Henry Jackassowski
Yep. Could have been dengue, but that wasnt prevalent in any of the areas where we went.
But we spent 5 days in Salvador Bahia and Zika was starting to really gain a foothold there at that time.
I wish we could get a test to know for sure if mom and baby were affected, but that doesnt seem to be possible.
It would certainly help me sleep better at night.
Who am I kidding. I have a newborn. I dont sleep at night
surfsteve
Pendejo
Damn, that's scary. Pulling for your daughter moving forward.
bsman
b00b
Flavivirus?
Yeah, boy!
lol. Yeah, flavivirus is the genus that contains Zika virus. Flavi means yellow in Latin, and the prototype virus of the genus is Yellow Fever Virus, so the genus is named accordingly.
tiger roach
Urban Bovine Knievel
Man that sounds scary. So glad the little one is okay!
Modern Saint
Starve your Fear, Feed your Dream!
That virus looks real nasty. The reports so far have been crazy.
No, not really. The majority of human infections are believed to be asymptomatic or sufficiently mild that health care professionals are not consulted. The big symptoms in a healthy adult include fever, arthritis, rash, and conjunctivitis. Hospitalization is rare, and the only real lasting issue for some people is persistent arthritis pain. At least two cases have presented with hemorrhagic fever like symptoms, but it is so rare that it isn't clear how this occurred.
Pregnant women may transmit virus across the placenta to a fetus, and this may (and MAY is the key word) result in significant neurological development issues resulting in microcephaly. It is unclear how connected virus infection is to this condition, as it is appears a very rare outcome. I know the media is hyping the shit out of this angle, but we are talking about a very small number of fetuses/infants, and it will require more effort to determine what role the virus plays, if any, in the microcephaly. There is also a possible link to enhanced development of GBS in humans, but again, the numbers of cases are too small to really draw conclusions. The recent outbreaks should add more data to clear up these issues, and hopefully in a positive way.
There are NO transmissions of this virus in the United States. The mosquitos that spread it do live here, so it is possible it could come here, but for now the cases you hear about in the US are traveler related.
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