What is Zika?
It is a virus spread by Aedes mosquitoes - these are the ones that are active during the
day. It usually causes no symptoms. In some cases, mild flu symptoms may be
produced. But this is often cured with rest. All these are obviously no cause
for concern. The reason why the world has taken note is because pregnant women
affected by the Zika virus gave birth to babies with small heads. The WHO
(World Health Organization) has declared it to be an international public
health emergency. After it affected a million people in May 2015, the virus has
spread to 24 nations in the Americas and Caribbean, and there is no known
vaccine, cure or treatment.
These are the facts surrounding the epidemic.
Does the Zika virus
cause microcephaly?
The evidence linking the virus to microcephaly or
shrunken heads in newborn babies is at best circumstantial. In Brazil, the
transmission of the virus picked up in 2014-15. Up until 2014, the four-year
average for microcephaly was 163 cases a year. Brazilian health authorities
have now recorded 3,530 cases of microcephaly between October 2015 and January
2016, and this figure includes 46 deaths. But for some reason, most of these
have occurred in the northeastern part of the country, leading many to wonder
if it is really the Zika virus that is the cause.
The Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns (PCST), a
group of doctors, blame it on Pyriproxyfen, a larvicide that was added to
Pernambuco’s drinking water supply by the Brazilian Ministry of Health way back
in 2014. This was done to check the growth of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the region, after it was determined
that these mosquitoes were carriers of the Zika virus. The chemical
Pyriproxyfen is known to cause birth defects, and in this immediate instance, a
commercial version of it, called SumiLarv, was used. Sumitomo Chemical,
believed to be a Japanese subsidiary of Monsanto, produces SumiLarv.
Others are skeptical of this claim. Pyriproxyfen is
used in 40 countries worldwide, including developed nations like France, Spain,
Denmark and the Netherlands. Recife is the epicenter of the outbreak, but
Pyriproxyfen has not been added to the drinking water here. Pyriproxyfen does
cause birth anomalies, but because of this, it is added carefully, and only in
minutely small quantities, just enough to prevent Aedes aegypti larvae from
becoming fully-grown adults. To be at risk from Pyriproxyfen, one would have to
drink 1,000 liters of water treated with the chemical. Monsanto also has clarified
on its association with Sumitomo – the Japanese company actually supplies it
with technology, not the other way around. And this is restricted to
herbicides. Monsanto does not own any stake in Sumitomo Chemical. The doctors'
group PCST is also an Argentinian organization and not a Brazilian one.
Popular myths
surrounding the Zika virus
