Zika virus

[Edward64]

Well crap, another potential epidemic.

I guess I'm lucky, we are done with kids and our kids are too young to start families, but this would concern me if I was about to start a family and lived in the border states.

Zika virus likely to spread to southern U.S., experts say - CBS News

As cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus are spreading across Central and South America and the Caribbean, experts say it's only a matter of time before the disease, which has been linked to an alarming increase in birth defects in Brazil, is transmitted within the United States.

"It's not if, it's when," said Mustapha Debboun, director of the mosquito control division at Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services in Houston.

Travelers to Zika-affected countries will bring the virus back to the United States, he said, "and sooner or later, the mosquitoes will pick up the virus."

Last Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unusual step of warning pregnant women and women who want to become pregnant to avoid travel in 14 countries and territories where Zika transmission is ongoing.

The list, to date, includes Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico

[Dutch]

Last Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unusual step of warning pregnant women and women who want to become pregnant to avoid travel in 14 countries and territories where Zika transmission is ongoing.

The list, to date, includes Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico

Good thing we have free immigration policies in place for all these countries. Just hop the border and receive free treatment from the US...while spreading whatever the fuck this plague is.

[JAG]

I first heard about this Froday also. Columbia and Brazil have both asked that people not become pregnant at this time, which is pretty scary. U.S. officials didn't seem as worried about a widespread epidemic here because 'screens and air conditioning' limit the impact of mosquitos compared with their availability in the affected countries. Still pretty nasty though, no symptoms despite carrying the virus and they're uncertain to what extent the birth defects related to the brain go, if things will only show up later in life, and so on.