<story><title>As Zika virus spreads, El Salvador asks women not to get pregnant until 2018</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/as-zika-virus-spreads-el-salvador-asks-women-not-to-get-pregnant-until-2018/2016/01/22/1dc2dadc-c11f-11e5-98c8-7fab78677d51_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>geertj</author><text>Terrifying. Doing some quick back of the envelope calculations: 1,000,000 people in Brazil got the virus, and there are 4,000 cases of microcephaly. Let&amp;#x27;s assume that most of these are caused by the virus (pre-virus level of microcephaly were very low) and assume half of the people are women. Also assume roughly two pregnancies over a women&amp;#x27;s life, and an average life expectancy of 73 years.&lt;p&gt;This would mean that of the 500,000 women that got the virus, roughly 2% of these women were pregnant while getting the virus, which equates to 10,000 women, resulting in 4,000 cases of microcephaly. This would be a 40% chance of microcephaly when a woman catches the virus during pregnancy. That is absurdly high for a virus that is starting to become (or already is) an epidemic.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s many assumptions in the calculation and I&amp;#x27;m sure the medical profession has much better numbers. As I said it&amp;#x27;s a back of the envelope. But even if the chances are 20% or 10%, that is still extremely high and worrying. The recommendation not to get pregnant in countries where the virus is active suddenly makes sense.</text></comment>
<story><title>As Zika virus spreads, El Salvador asks women not to get pregnant until 2018</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/as-zika-virus-spreads-el-salvador-asks-women-not-to-get-pregnant-until-2018/2016/01/22/1dc2dadc-c11f-11e5-98c8-7fab78677d51_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>navaati</author><text>This, on top of all the other mosquito-born diseases, may finally convince the authorities&amp;#x2F;ethical commitees&amp;#x2F;whoever has the decision power to use this CRISPR specie-killing scheme talked about some time ago. It&amp;#x27;s scary, but it&amp;#x27;s badly needed.
Because as sibling comment said, asking people not to get pregnant will never work, anytime anywhere in the world.</text></comment>