First baby born in Texas with Zika-related birth defect, officials say
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 babys 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 states 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
(111,467 posts)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
(8,938 posts)I wish they were more specific
morningfog
(18,115 posts)sakabatou
(42,204 posts)while doing nothing about this
Skittles
(153,310 posts)riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight
riversedge
(70,464 posts).....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 Congresss 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
(50,020 posts)A zika wall.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)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
(3,052 posts)And I don't mean because some group will freak out. I mean is it truly possible in a timely manner?
Sgent
(5,857 posts)but it shouldn't have any ecological effect. Its one specific species of mosquito, others will take its place if its eliminated.
God forbid they eliminate mosquitos in Texas. Its part of the charm.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Possible with crispr technology. Eliminate invasive mosquito species.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)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
(91,042 posts)....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
(18,115 posts)Next summer, Zika is likely to be present in our southern state skeeters.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)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
(260 posts)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
(16,866 posts)EllieBC
(3,052 posts)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
(16,866 posts)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
(3,052 posts)who has ASD. Thank goodness it's not up to you who lives and who dies.
dembotoz
(16,866 posts)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
(61,717 posts)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
(37,748 posts)"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
(16,866 posts)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
(91,042 posts)....this thread, so congratulations.
get the red out
(13,468 posts)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
(61,717 posts)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
(5,857 posts)who was testifying to congress, its about 10 million.
Throckmorton
(3,579 posts)Ja, Mein Fuhrer!!
Vinca
(50,334 posts)Ilsa
(61,717 posts)Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)Nihil
(13,508 posts)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?