OTM #2 Zika Virus

While listening to this podcast on the Zika virus I had to begin by researching this virus because I wasn’t very familiar nor had I really even heard much about it until now. I come to find that it was a mosquito bourne illness which causes microcephaly in new born babies. Which helped me understand the podcast titled “Ignore That Thing About Zika and Pesticides” much better when they started talking about the implications of the virus and what its origin is. In 2014 there were 150 reported cases of microcephaly across all of Brazil, and in 2015 there were 3,893 cases reported. (Chelala, 2016)  However, Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization suggested much caution and responded with “Although a causal link between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly has not, and I must emphasize, has not been established, the circumstantial evidence is suggestive and extremely worrisome,” (Chelala, 2016) The problem has been identified but not necessarily been credited to the Zika virus. There seems to be a lot of skepticism surrounding this virus and if it really is the cause of the birth defects found in children in this particular part of the world. Environmental activists have been calling the attention to not the Zika virus being the culprit but rather the role of pesticides as the possible cause of microcephaly in children. Many experts as well as environmental activists alerted on how some agricultural chemicals such as paraquat which is classified as highly poisonous is being extensively used in countries like northeast Brazil where almost a third of cases of microcephaly have occurred thus far. (Chelala, 2016)

This idea of not knowing where this problem is coming from is psychologically damaging to the people of this area as well as other countries who have seen a rise in this outbreak. It is terrifying to not know the source of something as terrible as this birth defect is. Is it the mosquitos or is it the pesticides used to keep the mosquitos away and produce their exports? This has a psychological effect on all involved in this because the proper safety measures haven’t been identified to take precaution against this. On the social level of this epidemic experts and civilians don’t necessarily know who to turn to in this matter for information. Some experts are saying it’s the pesticides while others are saying it’s from the mosquitos so socially who do we trust and turn to for information regarding this issue when the experts can’t agree on what the problem is. This situation poses the need to urgently investigate more thoroughly on both the Zika virus as well as the pesticides in causing microcephaly in children so that professionals and experts can collaborate with each other to come up with an appropriate solution to the matter. The not knowing and that lack of communication is effecting the culture negatively as well. Brazil is deemed as a fairly popular vacation destination and the culture could suffer due to these allegations of the Zika virus as well as the allegations of the pesticides. Both are harming the cultural and the people that live there. The lack of knowing I feel is the big issue I think more time needs to be spent on what the origin is in this birth defect and identify ways to proceed forward without there being a problem of not knowing the origin needs to be determined so that matters can be pressed on to finding a solution for all that are involved.