Talk:Zika virus

WHO emergency meeting

Some interesting quotes from WHO officials, plus a claim that genetically modified mosquitoes may be to blame: [1] Pashley (talk) 08:49, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Zika virus

Swept in from the pub

US gov't (CDC) now has a warning for 22 countries. [2] In particular, pregnant women should avoid these because Zika can damage unborn children.

Search here shows several mentions of Zika, but nowhere near 22 countries & no warning boxes. What do we need to add? Pashley (talk) 03:21, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I know we should be providing accurate travel advise, but isn't this subject rather complex to do on a 'per country' basis? Perhaps a general travel topic on traveling whilst pregnant? --Andrewssi2 (talk) 05:43, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Maybe we should consider some link on the country pages to a single article. Although I knew about of this problem in South America I was not aware it was in the other regions; suspect other readers would also have similar limited knowledge on the subject. I do not think we should go too deep into the subject but maybe a link to an official informative site. --Traveler100 (talk) 15:23, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I've heard recent reporting (actually, today was the first time I've heard about this) that this virus is a huge public health crisis in Brazil. I think warningboxes in articles for countries affected by this illness, warning pregnant women to avoid unnecessary travel there, are very much appropriate. I excerpt the following from a Reuters news article:

"Following a warning by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week that pregnant women should not travel to 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America where the virus has spread, Brazil's health ministry said pregnant women should seek medical advice before visiting."

"Municipal authorities in São Paulo, the country's biggest city, said they had distributed faster testing materials to help public hospitals identify patients infected with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus whose outbreaks have worsened in recent years."

"[...A]uthorities across Brazil are reminding visitors to take precautions, such as using insect repellent and long sleeves to avoid mosquito bites."

"Brazil's health ministry in November confirmed the Zika virus was linked to a fetal deformation known as microcephaly, in which infants are born with smaller-than-usual brains."

"Since October, at least 3,500 suspected cases of microcephaly have been reported by the health ministry, over 30 times more than had been reported each year since 2010.[...]"

We had big warningboxes for the ebola epidemic in West Africa. This is not quite as severe as that, to be sure, but it seems damned serious. Thanks for bringing this up, guys. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:43, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I wonder if it would be possible to make a template to handle these situations. My idea is to create a (normally blank) template and add it to each country. Then, if something comes up, you turn it on to display "This text" only in specified (inside the template) articles. If there's no health warning for that country, then it would be blank. This would permit central control, which might be worth the trouble of figuring out how to set it up. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:08, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes it is possible, see {{Globalwarning}}. Add to top of pages to make it active. As test I have added to Brazil and USA. Before we make this totally active, would like some feedback. We call add to all pages (or just country pages) but I would suggest making the template editable by admins only with requests made for changes on its talk page or on Traveler's pub. --Traveler100 (talk) 08:59, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

When blank the template adds extra whitespace to the articles in which it is placed. That needs to be rectified before it is used. Powers ^(talk) 19:48, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

I added a warning box in Tips for women travellers. I think we need more & a template seems a fine idea. Pashley (talk) 04:20, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

That red box should probably be in Tips for women travellers#Pregnancy (oops!) instead of at the top of the page. It's not every woman that's at risk; it's more specifically mums whose new babies are being born with small heads. The warning should identify which countries/regions are affected; it currently does not. The article on infectious diseases sorely needs some information, but currently has nothing useful on Zika beyond than a one-line mention that it can be transmitted by mosquito. K7L (talk) 22:57, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

André, perhaps we may need a plan B for our featured articles schedule for the case that the Zika epidemic gets so serious in Nicaragua and/or Colombia that we wouldn't want to recommend people to visit these countries right now. ϒpsilon (talk) 21:06, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

ϒpsilon - According to the map Pashley linked to, there have been neither any confirmed cases of Zika virus nor even positive serosurvey results in Nicaragua. If we're considering Nicaragua as iffy, that means we're questioning not only countries that are highlighted in solid purple (confirmed cases) or cross-hatched purple (positive serosurvey results) but also countries neighboring those. That's pretty much all of the Tropics. And that would also mean we'd not only have to take Mount Rinjani, Swakopmund, and Antigua Guatemala out of contention, but through some unlikely leap of logic, somehow replace them with destinations outside the Tropics that are still appropriate in terms of Time to feature. At that point, practical considerations come into play: are we really going to make it effectively impossible to run DotM or OtBP over the next few months because of something that's a concern to only a narrow subset of travellers (pregnant women)? I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of the epidemic, only to say that at some point it's fine to not mollycoddle travellers and to expect that they will take at least a basic level of personal responsibility for their own health and safety. Putting a warningbox on articles in areas affected by the virus is fine. If travellers choose to ignore the warnings, that's on them. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:14, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

I just wanted to hear what you think. Also, to my understanding, the explosion of the number of cases in the area between Central America and Brazil over the last couple of weeks is what the World Health Organization and others are worried about (especially if the trend continues), not the fact that the disease exists in Asia and Africa. ϒpsilon (talk) 07:31, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

The WHO also believes the virus will spread to every country in the Americas other than Canada, if I understood the reporting correctly. My feeling is, if some place that we're considering featuring suddenly becomes plagued, we can make a switch, but I don't know how important it is to make contingency plans now for the possibility of something happening in a few months. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:38, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

I just saw a news report saying four cases reported in Canada so far. The one they were discussing was a Quebec woman recently returned from a Caribbean holiday & now recovered; I don't know about the others. Pashley (talk) 07:43, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

By "spreading", they mean actually being transmitted in an area by mosquitoes. Of course, if you travel to somewhere where the disease is, you can incubate it and get sick after you fly home, but that doesn't mean you can transmit it to anyone. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:13, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

I have created a page Zika virus, but it could use improvement. Also more links; so far it is only linked from Infectious diseases and Tips for women travellers. Pashley (talk) 08:40, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Philippines

First case since 2012 reported. Philippine gov't suggests women postpone pregnancy: [3] Pashley (talk) 00:19, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Hawaii

Hawaii Declares State of Emergency over Zika, Dengue Pashley (talk) 14:19, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Florida

Zika outbreak confirmed in Florida, first in continental US "No Zika-positive mosquitoes yet, but transmission may be occurring in tiny area." Pashley (talk) 17:40, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

Singapore

Now this is alarming. In Singapore, about as far as you can get from Brazil, there were 41 locally acquired Zika cases reported in the weekend. A few days later that number has doubled and Oz has issued a travel warning for Singapore for pregnant women. ϒpsilon (talk) 17:46, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Singapore has very strict anti-mosquito measures, e.g. inspectors do not need a warrant to check your house or property for standing water & there are hefty fines even for having water around the base of a flower pot. If Zika is spreading despite those, that is really alarming. Pashley (talk) 18:27, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

A study concerning the possible spread of Zika in Asia and Africa

[4]. In the light of this week's outbreak in Singapore, the article might be of interest for people planning trips to the tropics. ϒpsilon (talk) 09:59, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Another effect?

Zika suppresses virus-fighting cells: study Worth mentioning? More likely, worth watching? Pashley (talk) 20:46, 5 July 2018 (UTC)