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Post by dazeepetals on Jan 28, 2016 20:48:17 GMT
Acutally I am a bit concerned as my DH and I planned to start trying for #2 this year.....and I live in South Texas.
Gah....now I'm off to research this more.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 28, 2016 20:57:51 GMT
I posted this in the other Zika thread as we are considering traveling to Brazil, and I too wondered if this was virus that could remain dormant in your system and be a potential risk to my daughter years from now:
The best information available says that it is just a risk for pregnant woman and those who plan to conceive within a month of traveling.
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BarbaraUK
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Post by BarbaraUK on Jan 28, 2016 21:01:36 GMT
sooo... If it's a health hazard to get pregnant, and these are heavily-Catholic areas (I'm assuming) where they frown on birth control, to say the least... what is the Church going to do? come out and say birth control is okay but just in this one instance? (that is, if people even have access to birth control methods in some of these areas- and what if the people themselves are adamantly Catholic to the point of not wanting to use birth control anyway? ...just a few aspects of it that could get messy, in a philosophical sense... I seriously doubt they would give their blessing to their congregations to abort fetuses with birth defects. Perhaps they see abstaining as the better alternative. Yes, I think that is the only thing the Church could really give their blessing to because surely there would be no way they could condone abortion? And campaigners are already saying that it's naive for the Brazilian government to issue those health guidelines:-
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Post by Miss Lerins Momma on Jan 28, 2016 21:12:17 GMT
I'm pregnant and due in June and a HUGE mosquito magnet!
We have plans to go to FL for Spring Break and if the CDC says not to travel to FL in between now and then, we will be postponing the trip until after the baby is born. I would not risk it!
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 28, 2016 21:19:08 GMT
There is a precedent for the Catholic church blessing contraception. 5-6 years ago, the previous Pope discussed using condoms to fight the Aids/HIV epidemic in Africa. My recollection was that while abstinence was best, using a condom to protect human life was justified. As the new Pope is significantly more liberal, I wouldn't be surprised if there is support from the church to use contraception to prevent the risk of severe birth defects. As a huge percentage of practicing Catholics use contraception, I imagine the high rates of unplanned pregnancy in Latin America have as much to do with access and affordability as the church's stance.
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scrappinghappy
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Post by scrappinghappy on Jan 28, 2016 21:21:49 GMT
I haven't read much on this but can someone clarify if the risk is just to women/babies who have the illness when they conceive or anytime after they have had the illness even if they are healthy again? Is there a waiting period after which it would be safe for women who have contracted the illness to conceive? Listening to the BBC this afternoon and this is what I understood. The disease first started in Uganda but the rates of microencephaly there were not reported as elevated. The postulation for this was natural immunity, i.e. if the woman had Zika as a child, she could not get it again as an adult. So it seems like if you get it, you do develop immunity. Keep in mind, also, that for 80% of the population infected its a very innocuous disease, completely asymptomatic. The report also quoted one researcher as saying the link between Zika and microencphaly had not been proven. There appears to be a link but more research is required.
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Post by maryland on Jan 28, 2016 21:28:44 GMT
I haven't read much on this but can someone clarify if the risk is just to women/babies who have the illness when they conceive or anytime after they have had the illness even if they are healthy again? Is there a waiting period after which it would be safe for women who have contracted the illness to conceive? I don't know much about it either. But I have a really dumb question. Are they sure that if the father is infected at the time of conception that he cannot pass it on to the child? I haven't heard any worries about men.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Jan 28, 2016 21:37:04 GMT
sooo... If it's a health hazard to get pregnant, and these are heavily-Catholic areas (I'm assuming) where they frown on birth control, to say the least... what is the Church going to do? come out and say birth control is okay but just in this one instance? (that is, if people even have access to birth control methods in some of these areas- and what if the people themselves are adamantly Catholic to the point of not wanting to use birth control anyway? ...just a few aspects of it that could get messy, in a philosophical sense... I seriously doubt they would give their blessing to their congregations to abort fetuses with birth defects. Perhaps they see abstaining as the better alternative. just to clarify, in no way was I thinking about or asking about abortion, here- I was thinking about the Catholic church's stance against birth control of any method, because of the traditional view that the primary purpose of sexual relations is for procreation. (I'm not Catholic myself, but I thought this was the interpretation) ETA: I didn't read far enough; Darcy Collins already addressed this.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 28, 2016 22:02:01 GMT
I haven't read much on this but can someone clarify if the risk is just to women/babies who have the illness when they conceive or anytime after they have had the illness even if they are healthy again? Is there a waiting period after which it would be safe for women who have contracted the illness to conceive? I don't know much about it either. But I have a really dumb question. Are they sure that if the father is infected at the time of conception that he cannot pass it on to the child? I haven't heard any worries about men. Zika was detected in semen. I think the real risk with men is that the virus would be sexually transmitted to the mother who would then infect the fetus.
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Post by peasapie on Jan 29, 2016 1:57:44 GMT
I haven't read much on this but can someone clarify if the risk is just to women/babies who have the illness when they conceive or anytime after they have had the illness even if they are healthy again? Is there a waiting period after which it would be safe for women who have contracted the illness to conceive? I haven't been able to find a good source of general information. I wondered this, too. I also wondered whether the disease could be spread by people traveling to those areas, being bitten, and returning home.
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Post by shamrock on Jan 29, 2016 2:23:30 GMT
I haven't seen any mention of it being spread person to person in any way. The way people can kinda spread it is if an infected person gets bit by a mosquito thus infecting the mosquito. The mosquito then goes and bites someone else and spreads the virus.
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Post by RiverIsis on Jan 29, 2016 3:48:16 GMT
sooo... If it's a health hazard to get pregnant, and these are heavily-Catholic areas (I'm assuming) where they frown on birth control, to say the least... what is the Church going to do? come out and say birth control is okay but just in this one instance? (that is, if people even have access to birth control methods in some of these areas- and what if the people themselves are adamantly Catholic to the point of not wanting to use birth control anyway? ...just a few aspects of it that could get messy, in a philosophical sense... I'm sure they will preach abstinence as a first course. There is a precedent for the Catholic church blessing contraception. 5-6 years ago, the previous Pope discussed using condoms to fight the Aids/HIV epidemic in Africa. My recollection was that while abstinence was best, using a condom to protect human life was justified. As the new Pope is significantly more liberal, I wouldn't be surprised if there is support from the church to use contraception to prevent the risk of severe birth defects. As a huge percentage of practicing Catholics use contraception, I imagine the high rates of unplanned pregnancy in Latin America have as much to do with access and affordability as the church's stance. From the Church perspective, Latin America and Africa are still generally behind on the contraception issue. European and North American Catholics tend toward usage being ok. The Priest who counselled us and the rest of our group said the decision about contraception is between the couple and God. That was 27 years ago. I don't know if he was liberal, realistic or had gone rogue!
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 29, 2016 4:09:01 GMT
I haven't seen any mention of it being spread person to person in any way. There is speculation that it might be able to be sexually transmitted, but no concrete proof yet.
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tanya2
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Post by tanya2 on Jan 29, 2016 5:17:29 GMT
I'm heading to the caribbean in just over a week & got a warning email from our cruise company, but i'm past the stage of worrying about conceiving so not too concerned
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melissa
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Post by melissa on Jan 29, 2016 17:25:55 GMT
Sexual transmission is almost irrelevant. A man living in an area where the mosquitos are infected is likely going to be infecting a woman who is already at risk! The risk to a baby is ONLY the maternal infection.
Also ALL the US cases have come from those with recent travel to these areas.
I am particularly concerned for my patients as most of our clinic patients come from Central and South America.
I've already done 2 continuing ed pieces on this and have another one left to do. The issue is not just microcephaly. It's central nervous system defects that microcephaly is a marker for. I fear this may mean that infection at any time during pregnancy may be an issue. Some of the defects described are clearly related to first trimester infection. It makes sense that would be the most serious effects would be during neural tube development, but there may less severe effects from later infection.
There are already guidelines for the care of women with possible Zika infection during pregnancy and a blood test that is available for those for whom the level of concern is the highest- women with actual symptoms with a history of travel to an affected area. This is not a commercially available test, it's through the CDC and some state health departments only
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BarbaraUK
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Post by BarbaraUK on Jan 29, 2016 19:35:47 GMT
Thank you melissa, that is the most concise and clear thing I've read on the effects of this virus so far........it's much appreciated.
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melissa
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Post by melissa on Jan 30, 2016 0:39:21 GMT
There still is much to know.
I already saw a post on FB on how this increase in microcephaly is really because they started vaccinating women for DPT in Brazil. Rolled my eyes and moved on. The association was made because of the presence of the virus IN the actual amniotic fluid of affected babies, etc.
I love people.
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