Sixty seconds on . . . Zika virus
BMJ 2016; 352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i467 (Published 26 January 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i467
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I apologise. The scientist I referred to is:
Dr George Kweifio-Okai.
Competing interests: My Previous Response gave wrong spellings of a Ghanaian scientist's name.
Mr (Dr?) Swale's response from New Zealand is worthy of attention, as is the contribution of the Ghanaian scientist Dr George Aki a few weeks ago on the matter of genetically modified Aedes.
Our CMO speedily assured the Select Committee of British efforts to produce a Zika vaccine. And I believe we (British) produced GM mosquitoes.
But, please pause and think:
1. Zika virus has been known for seventy years. Has it caused microcephaly where it was first discovered (UGANDA)?
2. Zika has, reputedly been spreading through various tropical and subtropical countries. Has it caused microcephaly there?
3. Microcephaly was known to occur more commonly in what was, pre- 1947, Punjab. It was attributed to consanguinity by some doctors (including my mother - personal communication, unpublished). Have the epidemiologists in Punjab (Pakistan) studied the prevalence of Zika antibodies in the population in general and in microcephalic individuals in particular?
4. If the foregoing points are unworthy of being considered, could our (British) epidemiologists just say - "Nonsense"?
POSTSCRIPT. How come that we hear of "new" viral diseases originating from Africa but not from the Americas or from Eurasia?
Competing interests: Have contributed to the discussion before,
Some increasing recognition is being given to the work of two groups of doctors in Brazil and Argentina who point out that microcephaly occurs where the Brazilian government has been spraying a chemical in the drinking water of poor neighbourhoods only since 2014. This chemical is designed to interrupt the larval development of mosquitos. The chemical, known as Pyriproxyfen, was used in a massive government-run program tasked to control the mosquito population in the country. Pyriproxyfen is a larvicide manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a company associated with Monsanto. Sumitomo has also been referred to as a subsidiary of Monsanto.
2014 coincidentally, seems to match the onset of increased microcephaly, not where ZIKA occurs, but where this spraying was done.
See http://www.techtimes.com/articles/133548/20160214/monsanto-larvicide-not...
Competing interests: No competing interests
Zika virus and Ivermectin to reduce transmission of diseases by mosquitoes.
The Nobel Prize winner antiparasitary medicine Ivermectin has achieved the reduction of about a third of transmissions of malaria in Africa thanks to its ectoparasitizide effect that kills the mosquitoes after they bite the patients.
It has the potential to reduce the enormous impact of Zika, Chikungunya, Dengue and Malaria in Latin America and elsewhere if is administered in one dosage to the appropriate affected patients, with minimal costs and minimal side effects.
This can be done together with the other known methods to reduce the propagation of mosquitos and the transmission of these diseases.
I propose the responsible authorities at the WHO/PAHO to analyze the possibilities of success for this strategy.
Prof. Dr. Enrique Sánchez-Delgado, MD
Internal Medicine-Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Director of Medical Education
Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas, Managua
Competing interests: No competing interests
3893 cases of microcephaly are not confirmed cases
3893 cases of microcephaly under investigation are not confirmed as microcephaly. The WHO/PAHO epidemiological alert on 17 November 2015 alerted the world about an "increase of microcephaly in the northeast of Brazil". Here in Brazil health professionals increased the number of nofication cases of microcephaly. According to "INFORME EPIDEMIOLÓGICO Nº 13 – SEMANA EPIDEMIOLÓGICA (SE) 06/2016 (07 A 13/02/2016) MONITORAMENTO DOS CASOS DE MICROCEFALIA NO BRASIL" at http://combateaedes.saude.gov.br/situacao-epidemiologica#informes, we now have 3935 cases of microcephaly under investigation, which represents 74.5% of the total notified cases.
We have1345 (25.5%) with the investigation concluded, and, of those, 837 are not microcephaly or neurologic disease. An actual answer to your second question should be 508 cases of microcephaly confirmed in Brazil since October 2015. And more, of those, more than ninety per cent were classified as having no relationship with Zika. That means until now in Brazil we have only 41 cases of microcephaly with Zika, and most of these were diagnosed with serological or clinic-imaging criteria, non-specific examinations.
I Live in Ceara, a state in the north east of Brazil. Here we are extremely worried about the Zika outbreak in the Américas, but one of the our greatest worries is the very large circulation of information that can cause panic in people around the world. It is important to remember that till now, according to the same document, we have 26 countries with autoctonal Zika transmission without cases of microcephaly, and nobody can explain this yet. I´m glad to participate with this discussion and I hope to contribute.
Competing interests: No competing interests