I had planned on doing an article on the reduction of the national and local teen pregnancy rates, but I believe I will hold off and do that later. Instead I wanted to say a few things about the Zika virus.

This virus is related to the other African diseases that have come to the Americas: West Nile, Chikungunya, Dengue (DENgee) and Yellow Fever. They are transmitted by mosquitoes. Fortunately, the best vector is Aedes aegypti, which is found in the most southern areas of the U.S., which does not include North Carolina. However, there is some evidence that shows that the local Aedes albopictus — the Asian tiger mosquito — can transmit the virus. This mosquito thrives while living among humans because they do not prefer large bodies of water, but rather pots, pans and soda bottles. This is a day feeder which is also unique.

At the time of this writing, there are 28 countries that have active transmissions of Zika. They include all of Central America, most of South America and many of the islands in the Caribbean. In these areas, women are being asked to delay having children for two years. Obviously women who are pregnant should postpone travel to these areas, and women who are thinking about pregnancy need to consult their health care provider. Again, the infected areas are the places that you would see on many cruise ship itineraries.

There has been a link between women with Zika and a birth defect called microcephaly, which is characterized by a shrunken head. In Brazil since 2015, when Zika arrived, there have been 4,000 cases of micrcephaly, which equates to a 20-fold increase over previous years. Although only one in five people infected will ever shown any symptoms, (low-grade fever, sore body, headache, red eyes and body rash) some require hospitalization while others have been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre, a neurological condition in which people’s immune systems damage their nerve cells, leading to muscle weakness and even paralysis.

So 2016 is our election year and it coincides with the Summer Olympics, which are to be held in Rio, Brazil. If every woman who is of child-bearing age is cautioned about going to this infected area, would this not result in very few women participants and an equally few number of female spectators for this spectacle?

And following the theory that it really isn’t a U.S. problem until it occurs in the U.S., with the revelation that the Zika virus was transmitted during sexual intercourse between someone in Texas and someone who had come from Venezuela, we will now have to join the rest of the world who have been advocating for strict condom use for up to six months for males who might have been exposed. I guess getting lucky on the cruise trips now means coming back uninfected. As the roll-call sergeant use to say on NYPD Blue — “Let’s be careful out there.”

That was never more true than today.

Bill Smith
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_Bill-Smith_cmyk.jpgBill Smith

Bill Smith

Bill Smith is the director of the Robeson County Health Department.