‘Supervet’ Dr Noel Fitzpatrickrecently appeared at Crufts and made an impassioned plea for  veterinarian and human medical professionals to work together in an integrated rather than separate fashion. He described that in certain instances cancer treatment for animals may be more effective, indeed, advanced than in people. Also that advances in prosthetics and bonding of metal and plastic attachments to restore function following spinal injuries and joint conditions have gone ahead in leaps and bounds. Again the plea that animal and human medics should cooperate for the betterment of animal and human medical progress.

Why then do I feel that my and many other people’s pleas have been ignored over decades, indeed more than a century, that complementary / alternative practitioners ought to be working together in an integrated healthcare system, instead of only drug-based medicine being considered ‘medicine’ by governments, the media and parts of the public?

Which brings us to the microcephaly tragedy unfolding mainly in South and Central America which has been linked to the Zika mosquito, although to date that Zika is the cause of microcephaly has not yet been proved.

Doubts have expressed about Zika’s role in the microcephaly epidemic, published in Letters to the Editor of PH Online Issue 229, as investigated by researchers such Dr Robert Verkerk of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH):

A new report has been published by the Argentine doctors’ organisation challenging the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly. Brazil’s Health Minister has gone as far as to say that he has, “100% certainty that there is a link between Zika and microcephaly”, despite Colombia’s President having said, “there’s no evidence Zika has caused any cases of the birth defect”. The new report suggests the chemical Pyriproxyfen is to blame. The pesticide was added to the drinking water in the areas affected by the epidemic to control mosquito numbers. Pyriproxyfen is produced by Sumitomo Chemical, one of Monsanto’s ‘strategic partners’, and has been designed to act as a growth inhibitor, generating malformations in developing mosquitoes, a condition very similar to microcephaly… In the words of the Argentine Physicians, “Malformations detected in thousands of children from pregnant women living in areas where the Brazilian state added Pyriproxyfen to drinking water are not a coincidence”.

and  Dr Mark Sircus.

“…A report from the Argentine doctors’ organization, Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns, also challenges the theory that the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil is the cause of the increase in the birth defect microcephaly among newborns. Instead of feeding into the standard virus mania this organization is pointing out that in the area where most sick people live, a chemical larvicide that produces malformations in mosquitoes was introduced into the drinking water supply in 2014. This poison, Pyriproxyfen, is used in a State-controlled program aimed at eradicating disease-carrying mosquitoes.

“From the doctors at Red Universitaria de Ambiente y Salud (the Red University of Environment and) we have the statement, “A dramatic increase of congenital malformations, especially microcephaly in newborns, was detected and quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. However, they fail to recognize that in the area where most sick persons live, a chemical larvicide producing malformations in mosquitoes has been applied for 18 months, and that this poison (pyroproxyfen) is applied by the State on drinking water used by the affected population.”

“A report on the Zika outbreak by the Brazilian doctors’ and public health researchers’ organization Abrasco, also names Pyriproxyfen as a likely cause of the microcephaly. It condemns the strategy of chemical control of Zika-carrying mosquitoes, which it says is contaminating the environment as well as people and is not decreasing the numbers of mosquitoes…”

There is currently an unprecedented focus of research activity targeted at Zika and microcephaly, although the only news emanating from the media appears to be about developing and fast-tracking a Zika vaccine and spraying pesticides over entire areas affected by the Zika mosquito. Now, if Zika is the proven cause of the microcephaly, then killing the mosquitos and developing an effective vaccine will be the best solution; however if the actual causes of the microcephaly and Guilliam-Barré syndrome are the hormone-modulating larvicides used in the pesticides, this could exacerbate the problem.

I sincerely hope that authorities are actually carrying out a multi-track strategy to avert a potential crisis in an entire generation of babies born with microcephaly.

I am very pleased to publish Positive Health PH Online Issue 229 with a selection of innovative, authoritative articles whose content may be counter to standard medical ideology, such as Digitalis in Prevention or During Heart Attacks by Carlos ETB Monteiro:

“Although one can harm or kill even a healthy man with injudicious use of digitalis, in the author's experience with acute myocardial infarction, complications (including the onset of ventricular tachycardia and the occurrence of sudden death) appeared as often in those patients who were not receiving digitalis as in those who were receiving it. In a series of 265 consecutive cases, his first admission mortality rate was 10 percent, compared with that of 16 percent in a similar series of 286 cases. This suggests that the use of digitalis was not strikingly harmful, and may well have been beneficial”, Ferdinand R Schemm

I invite all readers to enjoy this excellent issue!