First baby born in Texas with Zika-related birth defect, officials say

[jpak]

Source: Star-Telegram

AUSTIN
A baby boy born with microcephaly in Harris County is the first known Zika-affected infant in the state, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced Wednesday.

The baby’s mother contracted Zika in Colombia, and the baby was infected in the womb, according Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health. The baby was born a few weeks ago outside of Houston, and tests confirmed that he had Zika on Monday, Shah said.

In a news release, State Health Services Commissioner John Hellerstedt called the news “heartbreaking.”

“This underscores the damage Zika can have on unborn babies,” Hellerstedt said. “Our state’s work against Zika has never been more vital.”

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article89464417.html#storylink=cpy

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article89464417.html

[Warpy]

1. And cue the obstructionist Republicans whining about Democrats

who don't want poison pill riders like stupid abortion restrictions in that funding bill.

Republicans can't pass a clean bill if their lives depend on it. Let's hope some of them do.

[Demonaut]

2. was the mother pregnant in Colombia or did she get pregnant here after the visit to Colombia?

I wish they were more specific

[morningfog]

8. Unless this is a big development, she was pregnant in Colombia.

[sakabatou]

3. And now the Republicans are bitching about porn

while doing nothing about this

[Skittles]

4. anti-birth control / abortion freaks will step up make sure these babies are taken care of

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

[riversedge]

5. And Congress will go on a 7 wk vacation without funding reseach for Zika!

.....With three days left before its seven-week summer recess, congressional Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked over Zika funding. Without new funding, research on a Zika vaccine will slow, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who oversees federal vaccine research, told the Miami Herald last week.

Hotez, who has visited Congress frequently in the last few months to advocate for funding, lambasted Congress’s failure to approve funding to fight Zika. In February, President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in funding for Zika. Congress has haggled for months, but progress appeared possible earlier this week when Democrats said they would agree to budget cuts to pay for a $1.1 billion Republican proposal, if Republicans would agree to remove provisions preventing Planned Parenthood affiliates in Puerto Rico from receiving Zika funding. Republicans rejected that plan yesterday.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article89464417.html#storylink=cpy

[progressoid]

6. We need to build a wall!!!

A zika wall.

[AngryAmish]

7. If the CDC is not working on a gene drive, then fire them all.

Zika will soon be endemic in the south of the US. There is a invasive mosquito that harbors the disease.

When I say gene drive, it is an ability to make a species extinct, either by making all babies female or implanting a gene for starvation.


We need to kill every mosquito.

[EllieBC]

14. Is that actually possible?

And I don't mean because some group will freak out. I mean is it truly possible in a timely manner?

[Sgent]

18. I don't know if its possible

but it shouldn't have any ecological effect. Its one specific species of mosquito, others will take its place if its eliminated.

[enid602]

28. god forbid

God forbid they eliminate mosquitos in Texas. Its part of the charm.

[AngryAmish]

21. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive

Possible with crispr technology. Eliminate invasive mosquito species.

[proverbialwisdom]

23. Not so simple.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/opinion/the-risks-of-assisting-evolution.html

Incidentally, published in 2009, "Annually, approximately 25,000 infants in the United States will be diagnosed with microcephaly."
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19752457

More: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/microcephaly.html

[Hekate]

25. Oh for gods' sake. Our scientists are doing the best with what they've got. Obama asked for...

....X amount of funding for Zika research and the GOP cut the dollar amount drastically and hasn't approved any funding. It's what GOPCongress does. How is firing everybody in the CDC going to help?

You also might look at the anti-abortion policies and anti-family planning policies of Texas and affected South American countries while you're looking for someone to blame. Health organizations have asked the impossible of women who have no access.

[morningfog]

9. Sadly, the first of many to come in the US.

Next summer, Zika is likely to be present in our southern state skeeters.

[Equinox Moon]

10. It's possible repubs are waiting for private Pharm vaccine

If the obstructionists wait long enough, the private sector will get rich off a vaccine and the government won't have to fund it.

[StraightRazor]

11. Maybe Congress will take a break from yet another attempt to appeal Obamacare and...

free up the funding necessary to fight this.

I doubt it - unless of course it directly affects a member of one of their families, then MAYBE.

[dembotoz]

12. hmmmm wonder what the long term costs to taxpayers will be for a zika kid

[EllieBC]

13. What exactly does that mean?

There are longterm costs to raising children with any sort of disability or genetic issue. DS, CP, CF, premature birth related issues....and many of us wouldn't abort a child even if we knew our children would have these issues.

[dembotoz]

15. was married to a speech therapist who worked in a sheltered workshop

my best friend has an adult autistic daughter.

deformed kids are way expensive and will always be so. just stating the obvious.

the return on investment is awful.....
obviously you love em and care for them blah blah blah...but it takes the resources of the village to pull that off

[EllieBC]

16. Thanks. You may see little value in my former micropreemie

who has ASD. Thank goodness it's not up to you who lives and who dies.

[dembotoz]

17. really?

in the gop heaven where i live funding for special needs children is tenuous at best.
wish you all the luck in the world. cause it ain't getting any better around here
i have seen with my own two eyes the financial strain of special needs destroy families.

[Ilsa]

31. If you live in Canada vs Texas, then we're a universe apart.

Texas just cut funding for medicaid kids' therapies, like it was much of anything to begin with. Middle class parents of disabled kids here barely escape bankruptcy, well, some of them. There's a quality of life issue for the kids, too, in getting them therapy. Even if you can afford it, it's hard to find because most can't stay in private practice because the insurance and Medicaid doesn't like paying them. My child's ST went out of business -- plenty of customers; slow/no payments.

This is also about the so-called pro-life movement putting their money where their mouths are, to make it easier for families to choose life, vs depriving their other children of a college education. Or the mom being able to work outside the home and earn a retirement. Or just surviving.

I love my kids. But I would not have chosen this life.

[LanternWaste]

24. To one narrow-minded enough to perceive both life and family in simple economic ratios, I imagine it

"the return on investment is awful..."

To one narrow-minded enough to perceive both life and family in simple economic ratios, I imagine it would be awful... regardless of the trivialization of love and care. Again, just stating the obvious (part II)

(space to rationalize provided free of charge in space below)

[dembotoz]

34. i will take you up on it

last fall right before turkey day, i opened my house to a fellow dem who was in the process of becoming homeless.

cause among other things was an adult child living in a group home...kid has major impairments and major problems...the mother has destroyed her financial and emotional stability trying to make sure the kids life was as good as possible....Cant work when she runs to the group home at the drop of a hat....the group homes( a number of them) drop the kid off at the er when ever the kid gets wacky or has a medical episode.....for a while this year, the kid was in the er more often that jared would go to subway.....and she is supposed to find a job?
voc rehab keeps trying to get the kid to work and off medicaid....when that happens it will be the fastest bankruptcy you have ever seen between his medical and his mental heath his er visits alone would make bill gates middle class......

and this friend is not the only one like this...i see more and more like this....are the numbers increasing or am i just seeing those who were invisible to me.....i think of the monetary cause in another month i need her room back because my son who was away at college is moving back in after his lease is up......I do not know what she is going do. i do not know where she is going to go....
The state wants and pushes folks to be employed and independent and has little tolerance or funding for those who are not....

[Hekate]

26. That's why abortion is a choice in this country. I won't second guess yours. But you derailed ...

....this thread, so congratulations.

[get the red out]

29. I think what was meant...

I think dembotoz meant it would be better to fund research and hopefully prevent babies from suffering from Zika-related birth defects; which would be beneficial in every way, even economically.

[Ilsa]

32. Thank you.

And government should appropriate enough money to help raise these babies if their moms knowingly chose to give birth to a baby with microcephaly

[Sgent]

19. According to the CDC guy this afternoon

who was testifying to congress, its about 10 million.

[Throckmorton]

20. 40000 Marks for this!

Ja, Mein Fuhrer!!

[840high]

27. A lot.

[Vinca]

22. She better move to another state where the child might get the care it needs.

[Ilsa]

33. Yeah. Texas is one of the worst places to be a child with a disability. nt

[Teamster Jeff]

30. The kid is already qualified to be governor

[Nihil]

35. Surprised they noticed.

Meanwhile, zika is not the only (or even most common) cause of microcephaly around
so why the fuss over this one rather than all of the others?

Slow news day?

Someone trying to show what a problem it is if even a civilized country doesn't use abortion?