Recap of the Evidence Based Health Policy Project held at the Wisconsin Capital yesterday:
Dr. Osorio, Associate Professor and Researcher, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, UW Madison spoke on Zika. If you are unfamiliar with this virus, please read: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/zika-sexually-transmitted/ The most important take aways from his slide show was : 1) 80% of those infected with Zika don’t even know they have it. 2) 1 in 5 will have mild symptoms (fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis) lasting up to a week, and while those in Africa and South America are experiencing high infection rates, WI isn’t even on the radar (my words). One of the most important things he emphatically stated was that Zika caused the deaths of two babies due to two tissue samples that had Zika in them. (please hold this thought, I will deal with this later)
Next, Susan Paskewitz, Professor and Researcher, Medical Entomology Laboratory, UW Madison spoke primarily on West Nile Virus and Lyme Disease – with an emphasis on ticks and mosquitos. They have found some West Nile in mosquitos in WI but that the Northern mosquitos can not even carry Zika. She also stated that in regards to Lyme (borrelia), the two notorious carriers are the Dog tick (wood tick) and the deer tick (black legged tick), and that there is between 30,000 and 40,000 reported cases of Lyme (borrelia) in Wisconsin. She also stated that Wisconsin is a hot spot for Anaplasma with over 500 cases. She affirmed that ticks in WI are everywhere and on the move and that due to this, the disease has expanded as well. There is a nifty website where you can check out great information on ticks here: labs.russell.wisc.edu/wisconsin-ticks/.
After the slide shows they gave time for questions.
These are the things I spoke about:
*Since the EBHPP’s purpose and goals are to give timely, high quality information for evidence based decision making to increase UW research and teaching in topical issues of state public policy, I asked if it wasn’t perhaps more beneficial to discuss and act on something that Wisconsinites can get in their backyard, bedroom, and can spread congenitally?
*In regards to Zika I pointed out the statistics mentioned above as well as the fact that results of 2 tissue samples showing Zika is NOT evidence that the virus caused microcephaly that that we have viruses all over us, some good, some bad, but that doesn’t mean we are experiencing symptoms or active infection. Correlation is simply not the same as causality. There needs to be in depth studies on thousands of babies – those with and those without microcephaly, with pregnant women enrolled prospectively being monitored throughout the pregnancy with conclusive laboratory evidence.
*I also proposed two events that happened in the past year that more probably could have caused this microcephaly: 1) Brazil’s National Vaccine Schedule with DTap for Pregnant women to be given in the 27th week, 36th week, and up to 20 days prior to the expected date of birth – regardless of the lack of safety or effectiveness of Boostrix being established in pregnant women and that the Brazilian government has been vaccinating perhaps hundreds of thousands of pregnant women.
Published on Mar 29, 2016 Published on Mar 29, 2016 (15 min)
NVIC’s Barbara Loe Fisher reviews the medical literature that reveals that pertussis vaccines are not effectively preventing pertussis infection. To learn more continue to watch this commentary or read the fully referenced version at www.NVIC.org. Join NVIC’s Advocacy Portal to protect vaccine choice at www.NVICadvocacy.org.
2) A report published by the Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages of Argentina that discounts the theory that the increase in microcephaly is due to Zika and that a chemical known as pyriproxyfen (C20 H19 NO3), a pyridine-based pesticide to eradicate mosquitoes has been applied by the State on drinking water used by the affected population for 18 months. Then I reminded them of our own experience of using DDT which caused birth defects and even deaths. Both of these events were about the length of the gestational period – just in time to see microcephaly. (Zika has been around for over 40 years and never caused problems before)
http://www.thevaccinereaction.org/2016/05/new-york-aerial-sprays-altosid-and-vectobac-pesticides-to-combat-zika/ Yet, despite Médicos de Pueblos Fumigados arguing that an insect growth regulator used in Brazil might actually be the reason for the microcephaly, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is releasing similar growth regulators, Altosid and VectoBac, in pellet form from low-flying helicopters in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and The Bronx.
*I also spent considerable time discussing the plight of Lyme patients. That we are co-infected with numerous pathogens which make our cases far more complex than most realize. I spoke of borrelia, alone, and that it is pleomorphic with three shapes it can change into at will and that proper treatment needs to address this complexity and that 21 days of doxycycline, the current CDC standard of care is like throwing sand into the ocean. I spoke of 3 generations of Wisconsinites living under the same roof – all infected with MSIDS (multi systemic infectious disease syndrome). I explained that the myth that Lyme (borrelia) only causes a little joint pain and fatigue needs to be dispelled and that there is significant cognitive and psychological impairment with some suffering with severe anxiety, rage, confusion, depression, and memory loss.
Let’s stop talking about exotic tropical diseases and focus on what’s keeping Wisconsinites sick!
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 