The World Health Organization called the Zika Virus a global public health emergency on February 1, 2016. The WHO claimed this sudden outbreak is the cause for the spike in microcephaly cases in Brazilian children since October of 2015. Microcephaly is a condition where children are born with small skulls and in some cases underdeveloped brains. The World health organization also linked the Zika virus to cause Guillain Barre Syndrome which is a type of paralysis that causes the whole body to attack its nerve cells. These diseases were never associated with the Zika virus since its discovery 70 years ago. What is even more surprising is that percentages show only 4.2% percent of microcephaly cases have connection to Zika; therefore, 96% percent of the microcephaly cases have no connection with the Zika virus. There is no doubt that pharmaceutical companies play a role in this façade; as well as the Brazilian government. Several countries including France and India felt that Brazil was just overreacting since the country is scheduled to host the Olympics this year; they felt as if the country was just trying to show they are making huge leaps towards getting the epidemic under control in order to suppress mass hysteria. However, the other countries agree that there is something very wrong with the way the WHO is framing the issue.
Source:
Jagannath Chatterjee, “What is the Zika Virus Covering Up?,” GreenMedInfo, February 5, 2016, http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/what-zika-virus-epidemic-covering
Student Researcher: Jacqueline Williams, Indian River State College
Faculty Evaluator: Elliot D. Cohen, Indian River State College