Zika Mutates Extremely Quickly, Which Is Why It’s So Scary

[WhiteTara]

Source: Time

One thing that’s especially confounding about Zika is that as soon as something about the virus is understood, it comes under question.

Until recently, experts believed Zika was a relatively benign virus spread by mosquitoes. But now that it’s been linked to more than 1,000 microcephaly cases, scientists have taken a closer look, recently declaring it “scarier than we initially thought,” as one U.S. health official put it this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced it is now absolutely confident that Zika causes microcephaly—a connection that was suspected but not proven. It also appears to be linked to other disorders like Guillain-Barré syndrome and other autoimmune syndromes. The virus, experts now know, can be transmitted through sex.

In a new twist, experts are questioning the idea that mosquitoes are the primary cause of transmission. In a new study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), looked at sequences of the Zika virus over decades and found notable changes in the virus over time, suggesting that the virus’ ability to mutate is a reason why it is able to trigger different types of disease. They also noticed that the sequenced strains of Zika from mosquitoes do not match all the strains in humans from this outbreak. This suggests that more people than was expected may be getting the virus some other way.

The virus was first discovered in 1947 and has caused some disease in Africa and Asia before notable outbreaks in Micronesia in 2007 and in French Polynesia in 2013. But the current outbreak is by far the worst. To figure out why, the UCLA team partnered with Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing and compared 40 strains of Zika from past outbreaks as well as strains from the current one. The researchers analyzed some strains collected from people, some from monkeys, and some from mosquitoes. When sequences of the viruses were compared, the scientists noted a variety of differences between them.

Read more: http://time.com/4295827/zika-mutation-transmission/

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And now it is 30 states!

[redruddyred]

1. i know something that's scarier

and it starts with a "myalgic" and ends with an "encephalomyelitis"

sry but time magazine + VERY SCARY SUPERBUG = utterly unimpressed reader

[LiberalArkie]

2. K&R

[brewens]

3. Zika has been making my job tougher and it's going to get worse. I work for a blood center.

Up until now, I was a driver and registered donors at blood drives. I'm about to be trained to do what we call the donor history, the little mini-physical where we also evaluate the answers to our questionnaire.

So far, we only had to ask if donors had recently traveled to areas where Zika was present. That was mostly in the southern part of our hemisphere. Now I've seen projections where we will have it in our own southern states. That is going to make things really ugly, except for my job security. I work in a northern state. If anything, we will be ramping up collection efforts in my area. Now that is just my assuming that people in a southern state where Zika is being spread by mosquito's will be deferred from donating. I haven't actually been told that will be the case. I have no idea what the status is on testing. I would hope that anyone that had no symptoms and was not aware of being bitten by mosquito's would be allowed to donate. Then a test of a sample tube from their donation would confirm they were clean and the unit could be used. That would be a considerable expense but not so bad.

I'll be finding all that out for sure.

[WhiteTara]

4. I didn't even think of that as a way to spread the disease

Yikes.

[brewens]

5. Believe me, the FDA will make sure that is not even a possibility. I can see them shutting down

collections in any state where Zika is being spread. Right now the rule is that no one in one of the Zika area's can donate for 28 days after they get back. Then anyone that has had sex with a male that has been down there is a longer wait. I don't have the restrictions in front of me but they can easily be found online. The virus can survive in males and be transmitted sexually for a longer period. I don't know if it hides in the testicles or what, but it's something like that.

The FDA tends to be very restrictive where the blood supply is concerned. Some call it overkill but sometimes overkill is underrated.

[WhiteTara]

6. That's reassuring! Thanks.

[greiner3]

7. Rush will call it the Brazil virus

And ramp up the anxiety/fear/hatred/racist crap he's known for and maybe make it meaningful for the election

[cannabis_flower]

8. It is not likely

to not be bitten by mosquitoes in the south if you are outside at all and don't wear mosquito repellent all the time. And you can miss a spot or it can wear off.

[HockeyMom]

9. Not true

I live in South Florida. I sit outside in my screened in lanai (am right now) facing a golf course. They spray the greens all the time and come around by my property and spray on a weekly basis, long before Zika. No mosquitoes inside my AC house. Seen quite a few of Love Bugs and "No See 'Ums" (knats), but hordes of mosquitoes? Nope. Saw far more mosquitoes up in NY (don't spray like Florida) Summers than here.

[blm]

11. I'm in NC and we are swarmed by mosquitos every time we step outside. Walking the dog

means at least a dozen bites….on a good day.

[ToxMarz]

13. Hmmm, he said outside

I don't know if a screened lanai is technically "outside" (though it sounds lovely). I'm in Miami, you get bit by mosquitos unless you have an "unusual lifestyle". I'd actually be more concerned about all those chemicals being sprayed by a commercial enterprise interested in their profits and not your health you are touting. Hmm, Zika, or cancer and auto immune diseases with no "apparent" cause. Then there's the effects on bees.

[blm]

12. Salute to you and your co-workers, brewens….this is shaping up to be a

battle that is about to hit this nation hard.

[blm]

10. undergod help us….

.

[Yo_Mama]

14. The guess is that sexual transmission is a strong vector. Once it started hopping

thousands of miles of ocean very quickly, it was apparent that something had changed.

You don't get on a plane with a little cage of mosquitoes.

[dembotoz]

15. kick for exposure