I'd go. Just pack an extra bottle of Dimp.

networkn:

 

jpoc:

 

networkn:

 

jpoc:

 

Would I get extra points on my onecard if I came back with a dose of Zika virus?

 

I realise that the Rio promotion would have been in planning for many months but Zika in Brazil has been in the news since the start of the year and you would have hoped that the folks at Countdown would have had the sense to cancel this promo by now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well so long as you don't have unprotected sex, something I'd seriously hope you wouldn't do anywhere in the world let alone South America, I'd say your risk is pretty low. 

 

 

 

 

The current outbreak in Brazil has seen 1.5 million infections from mozzie bites in the last few months plus approx 2 cases of sexual transmission in the whole world ever.

 

 

Well that surprises me because I was watching a news broadcast about it (Sorry I am unsure which one but an overseas one like BBC) and they were saying some countries have been telling their citizens to not get pregnant and use protection etc during sex, which is unheard of in largely catholic locations. 

 

I wasn't aware it was prevalent in Mosquitoes, and that does change things.

 

For it to be confirmed that the disease was sexually transmitted (or transmitted some other way than mosquito bite), then they can only look at cases where someone passed on the disease (to a partner) when mosquitoes can be eliminated as the vector. That low figure for confirmed sexual transmission is not an indication that it's "rare" or "unlikely" that the disease would be sexually transmitted. 
The disease probably has a characteristic in common with other STD where sexual transmission is the most common route for infection - it's usually mild or often asymptomatic.  Hopefully it might have a characteristic which works against that - a short period where the person is infectious (unlike other STD).

networkn:

 

Well that surprises me because I was watching a news broadcast about it (Sorry I am unsure which one but an overseas one like BBC) and they were saying some countries have been telling their citizens to not get pregnant and use protection etc during sex, which is unheard of in largely catholic locations. 

 

I wasn't aware it was prevalent in Mosquitoes, and that does change things.

 

I believe it was Costa Rica where the govt has advised its populace not to get pregnant over the next two(?) years; given the high prevalence of Catholics in the country, and that abortion is still illegal, this sounds like a great piece of advice...

I am just waiting for someone to blame this on the TPPA, but I digress.  

networkn:

jpoc:

networkn:

jpoc:

Would I get extra points on my onecard if I came back with a dose of Zika virus?

I realise that the Rio promotion would have been in planning for many months but Zika in Brazil has been in the news since the start of the year and you would have hoped that the folks at Countdown would have had the sense to cancel this promo by now.

 

 

Well so long as you don't have unprotected sex, something I'd seriously hope you wouldn't do anywhere in the world let alone South America, I'd say your risk is pretty low. 

 

The current outbreak in Brazil has seen 1.5 million infections from mozzie bites in the last few months plus approx 2 cases of sexual transmission in the whole world ever.

Well that surprises me because I was watching a news broadcast about it (Sorry I am unsure which one but an overseas one like BBC) and they were saying some countries have been telling their citizens to not get pregnant and use protection etc during sex, which is unheard of in largely catholic locations. 

I wasn't aware it was prevalent in Mosquitoes, and that does change things.

networkn: Well that surprises me because I was watching a news broadcast about it (Sorry I am unsure which one but an overseas one like BBC) and they were saying some countries have been telling their citizens to not get pregnant and use protection etc during sex, which is unheard of in largely catholic locations. 

 

I wasn't aware it was prevalent in Mosquitoes, and that does change things. 

I think the "unprotected sex" thing is not so much because the virus itself may be sexually transmitted but because of the links to children being born with microcephaly through the virus being transmitted from the mother to the unborn child in the womb. No unprotected sex means no pregnancy, no pregnancy means no children being born with Zika-caused microcephaly.

Apparently there are also links between Zika and Guillain-Barre in adults - something nobody wants, but particularly professional athletes.

I'd be more worried about Dengue than Zika in Brazil, unless a pregnancy was involved.

joker97:

It is NOT prevalent in mosquitos.

There is only one way that a mosquito can transmit it:
A female Aedes needs to bite an infected person and then go on to bite another.
No other species of mosquito is able to carry the virus.

Zika has been found in other aedes species (than A aegypti) and non aedes species.  How significant - or if - these might be a vector isn't known. Much may depend on their feeding habits.  There are a few aedes species established in NZ - a most common mosquito is aedes notoscriptus - it even looks a bit like A aegypti.

Note that the transmission isn't blood to blood, the mosquito gets infected, the virus replicates in it's salivary gland, it then passes on the virus through injection of saliva into the bloodstream of the next host.  That's why HIV (and other diseases carried in the blood) isn't generally considered to be transmissible by mosquito - in theory it could happen if a mosquito fed on an infected person then immediately fed on another person, but the pathogens are ill-adapted to survive in the mosquito, would be killed in the digestive tract or by the mosquito's immune system etc - they don't "infect" the mossie.  However arboviruses have adapted to infect the vector.  Not a virus, but the plasmodium causing malaria is thought to take it a step further - by altering the behaviour of infected mosquitoes so that they feed more often than uninfected mosquitoes.  Nature is very cute.

It appears possible that a mosquito common in NZ may be able to transmit Zika virus:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-brazil-idUSKCN0W52AW

jpoc:

 

Would I get extra points on my onecard if I came back with a dose of Zika virus?

 

I realise that the Rio promotion would have been in planning for many months but Zika in Brazil has been in the news since the start of the year and you would have hoped that the folks at Countdown would have had the sense to cancel this promo by now.

 

Seen the number of "specials" to Fiji at the moment from travel agents ?