Entry #1, February 1st 2016

The new threat

WENCY LEUNG AND IVAN SEMENIUK
The Globe and Mail Last updated: Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 9:31PM EST


Overview:
This article speaks briefly of th recent outbreak of a new virus being spread called the "Zika virus". It is said that the mosquitoes- (Aeges Aegypti) can survive in many different environement as long as their is a somewhat warm climate support. This vi
rus can be spread sexually and through other blood transmissions. The mosquito will infect your blood with the virus and symptoms are unable to be seen unless you have a confirmed infection. Symptoms of an infection include, rashes, inflammation of the eyes, red eyes and headaches. A problem occurring is that some babies are being born with abnormally small heads and the people are being asked to avoid pregnancy until at least 2018 as a researcher from the University of Notre Dame has said there could be a 4-5 year wait until a vaccine is created. Scientists have discovered that the virus inside your body will not last very long as your immune system will eventually fight off the disease in approximately 1 week.

It is stated in the article that the virus has been confirmed to have spread in most of the warm climate south american countries such as Brazil. Many African countries are also affected by this as well as southern Asian countries. As for confirmed population sightings of the aeges aegypti  many countries including the U.S contain the mosquito. Countries such as Canada and Chile have supposedly not been hit with mosquitoes due to harsher climates but are speculated to be in the presence of the insect in the future. In Washington there have been reported populations of the ages aegypti even in the cold climates. Scientists are saying that the mosquitoes could be hiding somewhere deep such as a subway until the see a warm, wet spring weather in Washington so this could occur in countries such as Canada as well.

Map of affected areas of the virus and areas known to have the aegis aegypti

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-zika-virus-and-itscarrier/article28403924/

There are many events occurring in affected countries such as the Brazil Rio carnival which is very popular and well known worldwide. Government officials are saying they should cancel this event this year due to the wide spreading outbreak of the Zika Virus. In my opinion they should cancel this festival or even postpone it until vaccines or a stop of the spreading of the virus occurs. The carnival hosts near 2 million people on the streets per day, and with this virus on the loose it could spread into millions of people in the country having a huge economical effect on lifestyles. Many people could pick up this virus during the festival forcing the virus to spread to regions and amounts of poeple it would not have been able to before. Many people in Brazil could be home sick or needing a doctor meanwhile there would be an insufficient supply of doctors to care for this many patients. Also, people will not be able to go to work forcing businesses to have no employees and the stores will be unable to sell important resources. Overall there is a possibility that the Zika virus could cause an economical and social crisis in Brazil of this festival were to occur soon, this is why my opinion would be to postpone the festival. On the other hand doctors and researchers in other countries are saying not to have babies until 2018 due to the abnormal birth defects occurring in new borns due to the virus. I believe that it is the citizens choice whether or not they want to take this risk by having a baby during this time even though not every baby is born with a defect. I feel that a final solution for the government to handle this issue could be to start creating a vaccine immediately and spread awareness of the danger of the virus throughout there country because this could cause less people to be inclined to have babies and this would contribute to a much slower spread of the virus.