Have you heard about the zika virus outbreak? This virus outbreak may be related to GMO mosquitoes? Get all the information you need here.
—This post is courtesy of Honey Colony. (Original publish date February 2, 2016), Shared with permission—
Zika Virus Outbreak
Recent media reports have been all about Zika, Zika, Zika – a pretty name for an ugly mosquito-transmitted virus that is “spreading explosively” throughout North and South America. But what do we really know about Zika behind all the fear?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called it a “global public health emergency” and held a virtual meeting Monday to discuss next steps with experts from around the world.
A WORD FROM THE WHITE HOUSE:
FACT SHEET: Preparing for and Responding to the Zika Virus at Home and Abroad.
They state that Zika is especially dangerous to pregnant women. Health officials in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica have actually asked women in countries hard hit to avoid getting pregnant altogether until more is known – not an easy thing to do in areas with high rates of crime and sexual violence.
Meanwhile, US health officials have warned pregnant women to avoid traveling to high-risk countries since the infection causes babies to be born with brain damage and unusually small heads, a condition known as microcephaly, typically caused by chromosome disorders or maternal alcohol abuse. “It’s been long been considered a mild pest, rarely fatal, and certainly not associated with catastrophic birth defects,” writes The Wall Street Journal.
Zika is now present in about 25 countries, and WHO estimates that as many as four million people may be infected by the end of 2016. As of last week, there was a total of 19 cases reported in the U.S. the latest in Arkansas.
“Mosquitoes are small, stealth and hard to detect until you’ve been bitten. They are the ideal carrier for diseases,” adds Curtis Whalen, co-owner of Gilbert-based Blue Sky Pest Control.
According to the WHO, “a causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations and neurological syndromes … is strongly suspected.”
The link between Zika and microcephaly, and the conclusion that the virus can indeed disrupt the development of human embryos, is widely suspected by the medical community and the US Center for Disease Control, which has rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika from a mild threat to one of “alarming proportions.”
Go here for a list of countries affected by the Zika outbreak.
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GMO Mosquitoes And Zika
The strange thing is that Zika has been around for more than half a century, as a minor and virus in comparison. According to a New York Times article, the virus was first discovered in 1947 – in a Rhesus monkey in the Zika Forest of Uganda.
But if you dig a little deeper beyond the mainstream fray, there are reports that the virus was manufactured and patented that same year.
The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), an independent research and media organization based in Montreal, reports that zika was patented by the Rockefellers and is manufactured by two companies. By the looks of the screen grab, you can put Zika in your cart amd purchase it for only 599 euros.
If this is indeed correct, why should we believe anything the WHO has to say. It’s not the first time they have been accused of corruption.
WHO guides the public health services of 194 member states and a number of other countries, regarding their use of pharmacological drugs, vaccines, and non-drug medicine. Think about it “more than half the population on planet Earth” is influenced by the advice and recommendations given by WHO. That’s a lot of power. Just look how quickly they’ve summoned Zika pandemonium.
Why the sudden outbreak and high incidence of microcephaly, particularly in the Northeast Region of Brazil?
Is it just a coincidence that the recent outbreak of infections is concentrated in the same region where a genetically modified mosquito farm was first introduced in 2011 and 2012? ( You may rethink that trip to attend the summer Olympics in Brazil.)
In July 2015, following the release of OX513A strain of male mosquitoes into the wild in Juazeiro, Bahia, Northeast Brazil, biotech company Oxitec proudly announced they had “successfully controlled the Aedes Aegypti mosquito – that spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus – by reducing the target population by more than 90 percent.”
Interestingly, the first cases of microcephaly were reported in Brazil in May 2015 when doctors in the northeastern state of Pernambuco reported a surge in babies born with it. Pernambuco has nine million people and 129,000 annual births. In a typical year, nine are microcephalic infants.
Map One: Juazeiro, Brazil — the location where genetically-modified mosquitoes were first released into the wild.
Map Two: Map showing the concentration of suspected Zika-related cases of microcephaly in Brazil.
These maps appeared in The AntiMedia
According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2014, Brazil recorded 147 microcephaly cases. Since October, the country has reported 4,180 suspected cases and the death of 70 babies. And there are approximately 1.5 million Brazilians that may be infected. (Four out of five people with Zika virus have no symptoms, according to the WHO. Those who do become ill, typically have mild symptoms, such as a low fever, rash, joint pain, pink eye and headaches.)
Why didn’t Zika spur an epidemic of birth defects in any other countries?” poses one Redditer. She goes on to say:
“How exactly would you miss a tenfold increase in children born with most of their brain missing? Zika in Brazil does not seem to behave like the Zika we were familiar with before.”
The GMO strain of male mosquitoes produce non-viable offspring, which all die. They are supposed to be “self-extinguishing.” However if tetracycline is present in the environment, during the larval stage, the mutant mosquito can survive. Survival rates can reach 15 percent even with low levels of tetracycline, states an internal Oxitec document.
Yes for some reason this antibiotic increases their survival rates, and unfortunately this antibiotic is common in Brazil because of its prevalence in food production. Read: Chances are high that genetically mutated mosquitoes are in fact breeding and not dying off.
According to an article by Claire Bernish published on The AntiMedia:
“An unclassified document from the Trade and Agriculture Directorate Committee for Agriculture dated February 2015, [lists] Brazil as the third largest in ‘global antimicrobial consumption in food animal production’ — meaning, Brazil is third in the world for its use of tetracycline in its food animals. As a study by the American Society of Agronomy, et. al., explained, “It is estimated that approximately 75 percent of antibiotics are not absorbed by animals and are excreted in waste.”
Therefore antibiotics in our environment is common and with that comes resistance and superbugs. In the case of gmo mosquitoes, the antibiotic can repress the engineered lethality. And then what kind of mutilated bug do we have on our hands?
As the same Redditer states:
Has adequate research ever been done on how a genetically mutilated mosquito copes with viral infections? Could the mosquito be more susceptible to certain pathogens that it then passes on to humans? If a pathogen like the Zika virus can thrive in the mosquito without restraint, it could evolve into something far more dangerous than its original incarnation, pulling the lever on the slot machine with every replication until it hits the genetic jackpot.
The irony is that this outbreak will likely justify the need for more GMO mosquitoes.
GMO, Pesticides, Wild Wild West, Oh My
I didn’t have to go far to conclude my suspicion.
According to Alex Perkins, a biological science professor at Notre Dame, “It could very well be the case that genetically modified mosquitoes could end up being one of the most important tools that we have to combat Zika. If anything, we should potentially be looking into using these more.”
Meanwhile Amesh A. Adalja MD, FACP, FACEP whose expertise lies in infectious diseases, critical care (ICU), and emergency medicine says that the outbreak of Zika virus has zero relationship with GMO mosquitoes.
“Sterile male GMO mosquitoes have a tremendous potential to diminish populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a mosquito type that has plagued humans for far too long. GMO mosquitoes are an elegant and innovative solution that should be embraced.”
We are being genetically mutated every day.
Meanwhile, this catastrophe is leading to increased fumigations in the streets and surely on commercial flights. The WHO itself affirms the need to spray insecticides and reduce standing water where mosquitoes breed. States like Florida have already issued it a state of emergency and will undoubtedly blanket areas with poisons as preventative measures.
So what do you think? Let us know below in the comments!
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