El Salvador’s Advice on Zika Virus: Don’t Have Babies

I have to LOL at what the people in the US think of Latin America. Most Americans, even the relatively sophisticated NY Times readers judging by the remarks below, think that Latin Americans still have large families. Nothing could be further from the truth. El Salvador is WELL below the replacement raw fertility rate even without this latest disaster (see https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/21....

Bizarrely, this article quotes an interviewee that postpone babies equals no sex. Seriously? !!!!!

But a woman's self worth is defined by children in this region. If she doesn't have children where does she fit in this culture? Oh, and that means celebacy too as birth control is against the primary religion. Trouble.

An extremely good idea. For many countries.

If you voluntarily say that you will have a child regardless of what the government says, you are as worse of a person to me as someone who voluntarily has an abortion to you.

Very tragic: It is impossible to control mosquitoes in the tropics, particularly in the countryside.
Ponds and othe bodies of standing water can be treated with a few drops of kerosene; it does not kill the living mosquitoes but prevents the females from laying eggs.

If you are a strict Catholic who believes in the "God's will" philosophy, then, while your life may be very uncomfortable, you are comforted knowing that for all the sins of El Salvador, God wills that there be gang violence, clinics closing, the Zika virus and rampant microcephaly.

For the more secular minded, perhaps an emphasis on population reduction does not sound like such a bad idea for El Salvador, given its dense population. And, If the epidemic of microcephaly continues, who will pay for these children as they become adults? Their average IQ is around 60, of those with enough cognitive ability to be measured.

It seems that El Salvador is in a shambles right now, and doubtless the urge to be close to a loved one is reasurring, and one of the positives of life there. But birth control does ensure a more positive future for those that remain.

I had (have) Zika. I caught it while in Honduras over the holidays. My wife first noticed the rash on my face while waiting in Ft. Lauderdale for the flight to New York. I called my doctor the same day, they were clueless (and absolutely so) and told me they had to "look it up on the internet." So I gave up with them. I then alerted CDC, which sent me back a form response with some Zika information bullets. At any rate, it was a very strange disease: shifting joint aches, rashes on different parts of the body, chills, fever, etc. non of which was worse than a cross between a flu and having just jogged down a mountain of rocks.

I bring this all to everyone's attention because one day later my wife got it, and prior to our visit several members of her family got it also. And after we returned to NY, several other family members in Honduras got it also. Not a lot was made of this there because it wasn't dengue fever and as serious as that and that is their benchmark for mosquito illness.

Point here is that regardless of what anyone says, this thing spreads. Quickly.

All in all, In my two-week trip it was more uncommon friends and family to have not got infected, than got infected.

Take this for what it's worth.

EVERYONE should have access to free birth control, worldwide.
The pope should be ashamed of his cowardice at refusing to address the issue,
especially in light of the (avoidable) severe health risks.

------- this is solely an excuse to limit the birth rate, to reduce the population . . .

This is a exemplary recommendation from the Salvadorian government. Wouldn't it be nice if most governments across the planet would make recommendations to reduce human reproduction. This planet is FULL. Really it's overfull. Most Catholics are able to work around their church's rules on many topics so surely they can figure this one out too.

My spidey sense is picking up the NYT's next editorial: the USA must bring in hundreds of thousands of Salvadorian women because their right to have children in El Salvador has been stymied. And US taxpayers will must pay all the bills.

That'd be terrific if people could stop having babies for a couple of years, or at least slow it down considerably, because overpopulation is the source of every single problem on the planet, and it's getting worse all the time.

However, El Salvador and other such nations will definitely not pull off such a beneficial action, because they are Catholic countries. Religion does not allow for rational analysis or bowing to necessity, religion just sticks to its ridiculous dogma written by long-dead, ignorant peasants.

The Zika virus is terrible, but it may have the silver lining of forcing humans to reduce their numbers. If people go ahead and have children, as they undoubtedly will, at the minimum those born affected by the Zika virus will not be having their own children, and raising such children may well convince people to go for permanent birth control measures.

As for curing it, forget it, we can't cure viruses yet.

Pity the threat of zika won't prompt the corrupt personnel in the affected countries to tithe a mere 10% of their graft towards validating a vaccine.

This part of the world cannot afford so many disabled children. This is a public health catastrophe and brings to the forefront, the fact that the bugs are always several steps ahead of us and so also their vectors. One disabled child and the parents need full time child care, medical help and other paraphernalia that go with taking care of a young one that can't grow up to be normal. Contraception, prenatal diagnosis and early stage abortion if child is affected should all be on the table. Catholicism won't help if Catholicism stands against any or all of these. Pregnancy is not being prohibited by decree or punishment. It is being suggested and that is nowhere near the one child policy of China. If this virus is sexually transmitted, as has been speculated, then education about condom use, as in the case of the HIV virus is essential.

You have to wonder what effect of chemicals in spray to mosquito fumigate that home in NYT picture is. Not suggesting Zika is better than the chemicals, but the chemicals may not in long run prove better than the mosquitos and Zika (e.g., DDT, breast cancer rates in those Long Island -and other- towns where government drove through streets spraying chemicals in the 50s and 60s). Sterile male mosquitoes sure sound a lot healthier control option.

Urging WOMEN? Why would they not urge women AND men to prevent pregnancies??? In what universe do women get pregnant by themselves??

Not only El Salvador should be concerned. It's a disease with wings, spreading out quickly and can affect several countries in a blink of an eye. We can contribute with the typical warning indications:
"Cleaning yards"
"Getting rid of container with water stall"
" Fumigate"
etc.. So we don't get to the drastic advice of "not having babies in two years"

There is a real limit on research on Zika, as it does not exist in common lab animals, though it does exist in primates. However, with primate research so reviled by the animal rights groups, there is now no Zika animal testing. Instead we are telling women not to have babies. Does anyone else see the craziness of that? Let's open up primate lab testing despite the impact on the primates, albeit with necessary and humane controls in place, and work to cure Zika with all of the tools available to us - or are primates more valuable to the animal rights groups than Latin women and babies?

I think it's a good advice not to have babies for a while. You don't want to have a child who will suffer.

Zika can be devastating in pregnant women, and perhaps others, as it has been linked to paralytic illness as well. The dominant means of spread is via the mosquito.

Until a vaccine is developed, the best means of limiting the spread of zika will likely be by controlling mosquitoes. This will likely require the judicious use of insecticides that are both sufficiently potent and affordable in less developed countries. And that may mean DDT.

The dangers of DDT are well known, and Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, about the hazards of DDT, is often credited with inspiring the modern environmental movement. But we overreacted. By essentially banning, rather than intelligently regulating, DDT it is likely that millions needlessly died of another mosquito borne illness, malaria. Today, many, including the Times Editorial Board, believe that appropriate use of DDT is necessary in the fight against malaria.

It will likely be the same with zika. This disease can have horrendous consequences on the developing fetus, and we must do what we can to fight the virus, including the appropriate use of pesticides like DDT.

Mosquitos breed in standing water, it is possible that it will be necessary to balance protections of wetlands near urban areas with the need to control mosquitoes.

And we need to develop a vaccine.

But in the short term we must remember the necessity of balancing the many risks that nature throws our way, and not overreact in regulating tools like DDT.

If only - more people should consider NOT having babies - enough humans already!

No matter the rationale-

Less humans on the planet is always a good idea.
Less garbage produced
Less running over everything in their path
Less suffering.
Less pollution of oceans, skies
Less billboards
Less reality shows
Less mass murder
Win-win!

As a Salvadoran I am not surprised that the government would make such a suggestion. Although the idea of remaining abstinent for two years make sense, I wonder how they would deal with providing contraception. We have to be realistic, if the government hasn’t been able to stop the epidemic of gang violence what makes this any different?

Well, that's one way to deal with overpopulation...

IDK what the solution is. It seems like asking for this is rational on the face of it but also a sign of how desperate they are to head off the possibility of a foetus becoming disabled by the virus. There is also the matter of there not being any proven cause/effect between the Zikja Virus and microcephaly. AFAIK the only evidence is corollary that Zika is the cause of microcephaly.
The US used to have a large mosquito born disease problem. I remember the mosquito spraying trucks that used to come through Middletown regularly. I was taught that the US overcame the massive problem of malaria by creating millions of infertile mosquito’s to dilute the natural population, which in concert with the other methods eventually reduced their numbers enough that the disease they transmitted was eliminated.
There is also the Mosquito eradication effort in the SF Bay area of the mid 20th century, which was also very effective. They recruited the entire populace to root out any small pool of water where a mosquito could breed. It worked.
These are proven solutions, I’m sure someone kept records of exactly how they did it.

It's nothing more than magical thinking if the government and the Catholic Church aren't prepared to promote contraception.

Instead of promoting the use of birth control, I think we should invite the youth of El Salvador to the U.S. as asylum seekers. That will surely solve the problem.

El Salvador has been devastated, first by US-funded military dictatorships in the 1980s and 90s, and now by the so-called "war on drugs" and the enormous drug demand of the United States. Its government lacks the resources needed for an effective response to Zika: collecting and covering all trash, making screens for windows and doors available at low prices, informing the people.

The right thing to do would be to make these resources available, recognizing the role we play in their lack.

So far the only countries that are "safe" from the mosquito transmitting this disease are Canada and Chile.

Our climate has changed dramatically. Mosquitoes are delivering new and more devastating diseases. (those poor babies) Bats, mosquito eaters, afflicted with 'white nose disease' have died by the hundreds of thousands in No America. A pod of dead Sperm whales washed up on the shores of the UK yesterday. Honeybees, the great pollinators, are dying in droves. The earth has been trying to tell us somethjng.....

AFter this fumigation El Salvador will have the highest cancer rate in the world

Advising women and girls to put off having babies is a great idea, especially in Central American countries. However, this will only work if they provide birth control. Women are not the only ones responsible for pregnancies and I find it hard to believe that latin American men will also take responsibility. Despite poverty, gang violence and a failure to find employment, the population continue to edge up.

Ms. Velasquez, say this: “This government doesn’t want anyone else,” she said with a laugh. “We don’t fit already!”

When you can't fight that kind of attitude and you have the Catholic church, it's hard to imagine change as a possibility.

This clumsy recommendation may have solid scientific justification, beyond reducing the immediate rate of microcephaly. Zika causes frequent fetal damage in the Americas, but this connection remains rare in African countries, where the virus is common. Speculation has suggested a new mutation may have accompanied the introduction of Zika to the New World, but this isn't the most likely explanation. Perhaps almost all children contract and become immune to the virus while quite young. Then young women will be naturally immune and their fetuses will be protected, years later. Certain other common viral illnesses, notably German Measles, follow this pattern. It may be that the El Salvadorean pause will allow at least some young women to contract and become immune to the virus, before becoming pregnant. Time will tell, but it looks like we have our next target for immunization.

“The country is the most densely populated country on the entire continent,” he said during a news conference on Friday. “It wouldn’t be all that bad if we had a reduction in births.” Nice to hear some sane discussion about contraception and overpopulation out of Central America

Time to bring DDT back.

I think El Salvador is giving very sensible advice. Why would any woman risk giving birth to and caring for a baby with microcephaly?

Serious thought should be devoted to eradicating the mosquito entirely. The scientific consensus is that they are ecologically unimportant as they are not a major pollinator, not a primary food source, and similar small insects can easily fill the ecological niche that they would vacate. Releasing sterile males into the environment has been proven to work. No insecticides necessary. In one fell swoop we could virtually eliminate a host of mosquito-borne diseases (malaria, west Nile, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, dengue, and many others). Imagine a mosquito-free world. Millions of lives would be saved, and we can again enjoy a summer evening!

Then I hope the government will provide access to free contraception for the duration of this epidemic with the support of the Catholic church of course. Yeah right.

The pope's continued calls for family growth notwithstanding, we can't really afford to have children anyway. The economic needs of a child are crushing to a family (in the US, let alone South American countries!), and the climate burden of our current population has already brought us near or beyond the point of no return. Channel the love you'd show your future children to solving our future's existential problem.

As for Zika in particular...Brazil's loony loggers kicked the hornet's--or, well, mosquito's--nest there. Just throw any logger found to be using unsustainable practices into prison, and tell the general population there how the loggers have perhaps permanently endangered their health.

Having a baby is already a potential death sentence for all women in El Salvador. El Salvador has the most vile and misogynist anti-abortion laws in the world. They do not allow abortion to save the life of the mother. So both the mother and baby die in front of doctors in the hospitals when the mother could be easily be saved. The leadership of this country, rich and educated int he US, supports this horror show. They arrest and imprison women for miscarriages. They force girls as young as 9 years to have the babies of their rapists. And the Catholic church Bishops approve of this. (Let's not forget this while everyone lauds Pope Francis.) If El Salvador does not want women AND men, lets not forget it takes two, to have babies, they should provide free birth control, reproductive health options such as abortion on demand when birth control fails (because it is not fool proof), and they should ban the Catholic Church from their country.

One would like to have been able to blame a corrupt, right-wing government, but EL salvador is currently governed by the FMLN, the former left-wing guerrillas. One understands the disease was unexpected, but a better public-health infrastructure should have been in place. The President, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, and the Archbishop, José Luis Escobar, should be much more in front providing leadership than they are..

Big Pharma should make it a priority to develop vaccines and treatments for zika, chikungunya, malaria, dengue and a number of “third world” diseases. Global warming and international travel and trade are great equalizers. As temperatures rise and people and goods move, these diseases will soon be knocking at our doors. Pharmaceutical companies have ignored third world plight, but they will undoubtedly be tempted by an increased presence of these diseases in the US.