As the Zika virus infiltrates the United States, federal health officials are divided over the political and ethical predicament of whether they should advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating. Infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who work for various advisory panels. However, women’s health specialists state that the government should not be allowed to tell women what to do with their bodies; federal health officials have never advised all the women in a region of the country to stop having children. Furthermore, most babies conceived in Latin America during the Zika epidemic have been born healthy. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as “a very long conversation...we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant.” On Wednesday, the CDC confirmed what many experts already believed: that Zika virus, which is usually mild in adults, can cause severe brain damage in infants. As a result of the gathering evidence, health officials in countries affected by the Zika epidemic, including El Salvador and Colombia, have urged women to avoid pregnancy. Dr. Marcos Espinal, the director of the Zika response of the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the World Health Organization, stated in an interview that advising women to avoid conception during an epidemic’s relatively brief peak months, as Colombia did, is “sound advice.”
The Zika Virus is an epidemic that causes microcephaly in infants. With such a dangerous disease that causes serious severe brain damage, it is interesting to see the role of the government; do they have the right to advise women on whether to conceive or not?
This article clearly described the political and ethical predicament of whether the government should advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating. It had great quotations from experts in their field. The article could have been strengthened with statistical analysis such as how many infants have had severe brain damage and where in Latin America.
Mcneil, Donald G. "Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 16 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.
I read Freddie’s review on the article, “Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas”. She did a good job of summarizing the controversy over whether or not the government should tell women to hold off pregnancies in areas that were infected with the Zika virus. Disease experts argue that this would be the only way to prevent deformed babies. However, women’s health specialists state that the government cannot tell women to do with their bodies. She also did a good job of including a quote from Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as “a very long conversation...we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant.” This enhances the validity of the article and the review. Lastly, Freddie did a good job of pointing out that the article could have been enhanced with statistics about how many babies died from the Zika virus in South America and how many were affected.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the review was very well written, there were a few aspects that could have been improved on. Her second paragraph about how the article influenced society was very short and could have been expanded on. Another point that could have been included was to specify what the government in the United States was doing and if they told women to hold back their pregnancies like some governments in Columbia.
This article is very important to society in that it informs the public about what the government is doing about the Zika virus. Many women don’t like to be told to do with their body, however; I think that the government should be allowed to advise women to hold off their pregnancies in areas where the virus is present. The government’s job is to protect it’s people and cautioning people against the side effects of the virus is part of this.