Posts by Hilary Stace
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Latest theory seems to be that the Zika virus is mutating so that it is taken up more easily by the mosquito and is more infectious to humans.
Meanwhile new polio cases have appeared in Pakistan/Afghanistan when it finally appeared a few months ago to be eradicated. I find the links between these viruses causing panic and epidemic re disabled children 100 years apart so interesting.
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Access: Zika and microcephaly: things to…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Haven't heard that. Maybe in some practices but shingles immunisation is not subsidised as far as I know.
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Access: Zika and microcephaly: things to…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I meant different virus from Zika - ie the shingles/chickenpox Varicella zoster virus stays in the body and can emerge at times of immune stress.
On the first exposure you will get chickenpox and have some immunity but decades later an exposure of someone who has already had chickenpox can get shingles.
I have a friend who was very sick in her 50s from chickenpox which she caught from her .grandchildren. My daughter, having had cancer treatment as a child, had chickenpox first and then has had several doses of shingles (as a child and adult). I am considering getting a shingles immunisation - as I have seen how debilitating it can be in older people - but it costs about $200.
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Access: Zika and microcephaly: things to…, in reply to linger,
My understanding is that you can readily get shingles even after having chickenpox. That is a different type of virus, and includes other manifestations such as cold sores. It lurks and pops up in times of immune stress. But you can't get chicken pox twice (unless you are immune compromised from something like cancer treatment).
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Access: Zika and microcephaly: things to…, in reply to mpledger,
I've no idea. But it seems to be a growing fear. Of course, Rosemary might be right and it is not quite as straightforward.
As a historian of polio and autism I find the parallels with the current 'Zika-caused microcephaly crisis' fascinating.
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Polity: TPP, eh?, in reply to Alfie,
In 1981 there were the same lines. There was fury when a Wellington march blocked the motorway - just one of many such 'inconveniences'. The media (which seemed 100% opposed to the protests) often said that the protesters did not understand the issues and after all it was about another country.
I would have thought that Heather Du Plessis-Allan, as a South African, would have been a bit more savvy about the meanings of protest.
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A scare story in the media but at least some facts at the end
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/76653438/teenager-feared-to-have-zika-virus-after-tonga-holiday -
Huffington Post considering the implications for abortion rights.
I was pleased to see this quote from Rosemarie Garland-Thompson included.“Somehow, what got written into the idea of reproductive choice and freedom is the assumption no woman is prepared or would want to parent a child with a disability."
She was in NZ last year and did a great interview on disability on Radio NZ.
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Angela Hart,
Yes, Angela, the signing of the Optional Protocol was promised years ago but no sign of it happening yet.
Hopefully we can get someone involved in this group to report here on Access from time to time.
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I'm going to use this thread to tell a story from my current research project. The Dunedin 'sound' goes back further than many might imagine. In the early-mid 1960s, 'Teen Time' at the YMCA was Dunedin's answer to Liverpool's Cavern. Local bands would play to crowds of young people and the music was broadcast on 4ZB. On other occasions YMCA director JB Munro played DJ. One band which played there regularly was Wayne Mowat's The Discords, later changed to the Cord 5.