For families in Latin America, and women across the world in the mosquito zone concerned about giving birth to children with microcephaly, the news that Latin American doctors are suggesting Monsanto pesticide used to kill mosquito larvae may actually be the link is epic.
As the Zika epidemic “spreads explosively” around the world, pregnant travelers have been put on pause due to the virus’s suspected association with microcephaly, the congenital condition in which a baby’s head is abnormally small.
While the link between the mosquito-borne virus and microcephaly has yet to be scientifically proven, Argentinian and Brazilian doctors have suggested an alternate culprit: pesticides.
http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/12/larvicide-cause-not-zika/
It’s still heartbreaking news for pregnant women within those zones where this larvicide has been used in, yes, DRINKING WATER, to combat mosquito populations.
And yet, for the long term, it may be hopeful in that stopping the use of this larvicide in drinking water may be much easier than stopping the proliferation of Aedes species mosquito which thrives in urban areas and in water sources as small as a bottle cap and is spreading throughout the world.
Though some are disputing this chemical link, the evidence is compelling.
The report, written by the Argentine group Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns (PCST), suspects that pyriproxyfen—a larvicide added to drinking water to stop the development of mosquito larvae in drinking water tanks—has caused the birth defects.
The authors said that the pesticide, known by its commercial name SumiLarv, is manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese subsidiary of Monsanto.
According to PCST, in 2014, the Brazilian Ministry of Health introduced pyriproxyfen to drinking-water reservoirs in the state of Pernambuco, where the proliferation of the Zika-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito is very high.
“Malformations detected in thousands of children from pregnant women living in areas where the Brazilian state added pyriproxyfen to drinking water is not a coincidence, even though the Ministry of Health places a direct blame on Zika virus for this damage, while trying to ignore its responsibility and ruling out the hypothesis of direct and cumulative chemical damage caused by years of endocrine and immunological disruption of the a acted population,” PCST said.
Adding:
“Previous Zika epidemics did not cause birth defects in newborns, despite infecting 75 percent of the population in those countries,” the paper said. “Also, in other countries such as Colombia there are no records of microcephaly; however, there are plenty of Zika cases.”
The debate will continue. Some will need to save face. Others may have money riding on Zika Virus vaccine development.
Zika-related microcephaly can be difficult to confirm. The Washington Post reported last month that after experts scrutinized 732 of the cases out 4,180 cases of Zika-related microcephaly, they found more than half either weren’t microcephaly or weren’t even related to Zika at all. In fact, according to the ministry bulletin, just 270 were confirmed as microcephaly that appears to be linked to Zika or other infectious diseases.
However, as PBS’s Frontline reported last week, Pernambuco researchers have identified clear evidence of the microcephaly-Zika link. According to the report, “researchers here tested the spinal fluid of 12 babies with microcephaly, all of whom were born to mothers who reported having symptoms of Zika early in their pregnancies. In all 12 cases, the researchers found evidence of Zika.”
Secretary of Vigilance and Health Luciana Albuquerque said in a press conference at the Pernambuco Health Department that “this is not a scientific study,” noting that the results do not indicate a definitive causal link but added, “it’s a very important suggestion of the link.”
The WHO officially declared Zika a global health emergency and officials are carefully monitoring the spread. Researchers are also currently racing to develop a vaccine.
As a biologist, ecologist, a woman..I sincerely hope the use of the Monsanto larvicide in drinking water supplies will be stopped immediately. I suspect we’ll see an immediate rapid decline in microcephaly cases.