What it feels like living through the epidemic in Colombia:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35552340

The cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome that they describe are at the most severe end of the spectrum. Perhaps the Zika-induced form is worse. (Tony Benn got it from some unknown cause, but made a good recovery - too soon to know how many Zika victims will be as lucky).

Meanwhile, it's early days in Colombia and not enough affected babies have been born yet to know how many will be microcephalic.


Meanwhile I do not see the Brazilian situation the way Steve does:

These differing opinions serve to present both sides of the issue, and then it should be up to the pregnant woman to decide what to do.
Talk about a false veneer of neutrality. No mention of the lack of sex education, thanks to the Church. No mention of poverty. No mention of lack of contraception or contraceptive advice, thanks to the Church. Just express your opinion that you shouldn't be doing it. Don't forget to mention the stigmatisation if she does do it, let alone ostracism by the Church and the threat of eternal damnation. After all that, leave it up to the pregnant woman, who has already been beaten around the head with churchy morality, who is now carrying a baby with a severe defect and who probably hasn't got the resources to get an abortion anyway.

Brazilian women are not the passive victims of brainwashing that Steve is suggesting. About 90% use contraception despite the church absolutely forbidding it, and with a million abortions each year, the church's teaching on that is being systematically and deservedly pissed on as well. They know to make their own choices - the problem is that the theocratic state stops them from exercising those choices freely. In a more humane society, abortions would not just be tolerated but funded on request. No Catholic theocracy is anywhere near doing that.