Dengue state of emergency

[kalakoa]

More "potential but unproven" side effects of Zika:

http://www.reuters.com/article/health-zi...SL8N15O3CY

Just keeps getting better.

[Punatic007]

I don't buy it...linking Zika to disease outbreaks, not yet anyway, no conclusive evidence. Other factors need to be considered such as highly polluted waters in Brazil already linked to microcephaly. And the 2014 mandated vaccines in Brazil for pregnant women. This article appears to be biased against vaccines however there is an interesting section:
http://www.thevaccinereaction.org/2016/0...late-2014/

"According to GSK, neither the safety nor effectiveness of Boostrix have been established in pregnant women.8 The package insert for Boostrix reads:

A developmental toxicity study has been performed in female rats at a dose approximately 40 times the human dose (on a mL/kg basis) and revealed no evidence of harm to the fetus due to BOOSTRIX. Animal fertility studies have not been conducted with BOOSTRIX. There are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. Because animal reproduction studies are not always predictive of human response, BOOSTRIX should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed.9
Despite this cautionary information, the Brazilian government has been vaccinating tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of pregnant women in its country during the past year. A large portion of these pregnancies are occurring in Brazil’s northeastern region, notably in the state of Pernambuco—the country’s fastest growing population center."

[kalakoa]

linking Zika to disease outbreaks, not yet anyway, no conclusive evidence

Right, so let's not bother fighting Zika, it might turn out to be nothing?

[Punatic007]

quote:

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Originally posted by kalakoa

linking Zika to disease outbreaks, not yet anyway, no conclusive evidence

Right, so let's not bother fighting Zika, it might turn out to be nothing?

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You said that.

Apparently the global science and medical community is having problems getting samples from patients, it violates a law in Brazil. I do think the billion dollars Obama is asking for to fight Zika is premature until it can be conclusively linked to GBS or microcephaly. At this point I'd rather see efforts in the reduction of mosquitos. A billion dollars could furnish and set out a lot of mosquito traps as well as funding to either support or rule out GMO mosquitos.

[kalakoa]

A billion dollars could furnish and set out a lot of mosquito traps

1. How convenient that it's the same species of mosquito;

2. covering the Big Island should cost less than $1B.

The longer this debacle goes on, the less impressed I am with our State/County government. (I was unimpressed before, so now it's less than zero.)

Case in point: Ige found $250K to fund more Vector Control workers ... but it will take months to actually hire them, "state of emergency" or not.

Meanwhile we get a PR campaign urging people to avoid being bitten.

Again: it's pretty clear that State considers the Big Island to be a huge liability, maybe they should just let us secede and become a Territory again.

[Guest]

Well if the number of infected or confirmed cases of dengue is now over 250 for our island. Would it be safe or a stretch, to say well over 1,000 island residents have now contacted or had the dengue virus? Here is yet another good reading article on this growing dengue health problem, even they admit they really don't know the true numbers that are infected by the dengue virus.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-na...180958009/

Recent video of an island dengue meeting here, some are getting frustrated and tired.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2016/0...-honaunau/

[PaulW]

I thought 250 was the total, or am I missing something here?

[Guest]

What I meant is the number of confirmed dengue cases IS 250, yes agreed. AlThough I suspect many who got the dengue virus never showed serious enough symptoms to even go to the doctor, to be part of that 250 confirmed count. Also i suspect Many who have been very sick with dengue symptoms never got tested for various reasons like insurance, religion, money, time, ect, to be part of that 250 confirmed count.
Some may have been incorrectly diagnosed like my good friend and his son, currently in Oregon. They had to make the extra effort to go back into the doctors and request the dengue test. After a week thinking it was something else they were told it was. Also others have been very sick, sick enough to stay over night in the hospital. Yet sent home not knowing much of anything, told something else is going around and their(doctors) not quite sure what it is yet(maybe Zika?,jmo).

So my thinking was that the number of dengue cases amongst us island residents may be higher than the 250 confirmed cases being said or stated, maybe much higher?.

[TomK]

"Sorry Ted, I believe gypsy69 is right. Three quarters of all cases of Dengue are asystematic and as such do not know they have contracted the disease. Statistically this makes the 250 confirmed cases equal to 1,000 cases assumed to be on the island to date."

Um, what? Asystematic means you multiply things by four? And that's statistics?

[PaulW]

http://www.dengue.gov.sg/subject.asp?id=12

2. The mosquito becomes infective approximately seven days after it has bitten a person carrying the virus. This is the extrinsic incubation period, during which time the virus replicates in the mosquito and reaches the salivary glands.
[...]
4. The average lifespan of an Aedes mosquito in Nature is two weeks.