Blindness from a Bite???
By: Kortney Duncan
On September 7th 2016 (and
published in the congressional record of the Senate on September 13th), Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid made a bold statement on the senate floor in
reference to Zika virus. He states that “Zika is now infecting eyes – the virus
goes in people’s eyes and leads to vision impairment and blindness .” He felt
inclined to say so because senate democrats blocked the passing of a bill “that
would have provided $1.1 billion to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus” and
its effects in humans. Democrats say the bill was blocked because republicans “sabotaged the legislation
with politically charged provisions” and currently there is a
possibility that there is no other way to make the money needed to formulate a
movement to prevent the outcomes of Zika virus from worsening. When Senator
Reid made this claim, he said it in reference to a peer reviewed study done by
Michael S. Diamond and his team who used mice to
study in depth the many physical side effects of being infected with the virus
and all of its possible outcomes (primarily the shedding of the virus through
tears). The study was submitted July 27th 2016, reviewed August 25th, and
published on Sept. 6th 2016.
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| Photo credit: costculator.com, June 24th, 2016, Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/141735806@N08/27872970385 |
The purpose of this blog article is
to analyze the claim made by Senator Reid and compare it with evidence backed
up by recent professional research. This will allow us to differentiate fact
from fiction and understand if the claim he made was reliable or not.
First, we have to understand a
little more about the virus itself. The epidemic began in Brazil in 2015 and
widely spread until it was declared a public health emergency in February of
2016. The disease itself spreads
mainly through the bite of a Aedes
species mosquito and common side
effects are pain in the eyes, muscles, or joints, chills, fatigue,
sweating, eye redness, rash, vomiting, and sometimes fever. It has been known
to transmit also through sexual contact, as well as from mother to baby during
pregnancy.
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| Copyright August 2016 ,Vimeo. (For campaign against zika & pregnancy). Creative commons: https://vimeo.com/176999175 |
The study done by Dr. Michael S.
Diamond and his team says that they evaluated whether Zika infects and injures
the eyes of mice. Though there was some damage to the retinas and some
uncomfortableness to the eyes while the experiment was in progress, all of the
mice recovered completely within 28 days and no side effects (having to do with
sight loss or otherwise) persisted. The
mice revealed absolutely no differences in ocular (eyes) or brain function,
which suggests that those “TAM receptors lack an essential entry or signaling
role in these tissues”. The experiment effectively proved that viruses, not
just Zika virus alone, infects very specific targeted cells in different areas
of the eye, and can be spread easily through tears. It led way to discover treatment for
small, common viral infections in the eye tissue; however the study did not
prove that the Zika virus leads to blindness.
There have been several reported
cases of slight impaired sight for a short time, but the effect never lasts
longer than the disease stays in the body. Although, even if permanent sight
loss is not an effect of the Zika virus, we should be aware that the virus can
cause temporary sight agitation and in some rare cases temporary impairment, as
well as severe birth defects to babies in the fetus (which do last a lifetime).
We should take every precaution, especially to those pregnant in order to
prevent future generations from having contact with the virus. There is currently
no cure or immunity and therefore we should utilize every opportunity to
prevent cases where we can. Some examples of good prevention techniques might
include wearing insect repellant, clothes that cover majority of the body,
minimizing travel of pregnant individuals to more affected areas, as well as
avoiding sexual contact with anyone who has recently had the disease itself or
has had contact with it.
SO WAS HE RIGHT??
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| Above: Harry Reid, taken Sept. 7th 2010, creative commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/ |
Sources:
PRIMARY PEER REVIEWED: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247%2816%2931175-5
SECONDARY PEER REVIEWED:
TERTIARY:
Interesting perspective
ReplyDeleteVery interesting.
ReplyDelete