Unsexy Truth of Zika Virus

Symptoms, Testing, & Treatment - What we know

Many people infected with Zika virus won’t have symptoms or will only have mild symptoms.
A blood or urine test can confirm Zika infection diagnosis.

There is no specific medicine for Zika.

Many people infected with Zika virus won’t have symptoms or will only have mild symptoms. The most common symptoms of Zika are

• Fever
• Rash
• Joint pain
• Conjunctivitis (red eyes)

      Other symptoms include:

• Muscle pain
• Headache

How long symptoms last

Zika is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week. People usually don’t get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika. For this reason, many people might not realize they have been infected. Symptoms of Zika are similar to other viruses spread through mosquito bites, like dengue and chikungunya.

How soon you should be tested

Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for about a week. See your doctor or other healthcare provider if you develop symptoms and you live in or have recently traveled to an area with Zika. Your doctor or other healthcare provider may order blood tests to look for Zika or other similar viruses like dengue or chikungunya. Once a person has been infected, he or she is likely to be protected from future infections.

When to see a doctor or healthcare provider

See your doctor or other healthcare provider if you have the symptoms described above and have visited an area with Zika, this is especially important if you are pregnant.  Be sure to tell your doctor or other healthcare provider where you traveled.

If you think you have Zika

See your doctor or other healthcare provider for a diagnosis.

Learn what you can do for treatment.

Learn how you can protect others if you have Zika.

Pregnancy

What we know

• Zika virus can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetus.
• Infection during pregnancy can cause certain birth defects
• Zika primarily spreads through infected mosquitoes. You can also get Zika through sex.
• There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika.

What we do not know

• If there’s a safe time during your pregnancy to travel to an area with Zika. 
• How likely it is that Zika infection will affect your pregnancy. 
• If your baby will have birth defects if you are infected while pregnant.

Preventing Unintended Pregnancy during the Zika Virus Outbreak

CDC is providing this information because Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause a birth defect of the brain called microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects.

How to Prevent Unintended Pregnancy

If you decide that now is not the right time to have a baby, talk to your doctor or other healthcare provider. The best way to prevent unintended pregnancy if you are sexually active is to use an effective form of birth control the right way, every time you have sex.  It is important to find a type of birth control that is safe, effective, and works for you.

Types of Birth Control

There are many different types of birth control; some have hormones and some don’t. Also, some methods are permanent while others are reversible. The most effective reversible birth control is long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), which includes intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants. LARC are highly effective for years and once correctly in place, require no action on your part, but can be removed at any time if you decide you want to become pregnant.

For other types of birth control, the effectiveness depends on using them correctly and consistently—so these methods have lower effectiveness with typical use. These methods include

• Hormonal methods (contraceptive shot, pills, patch, and ring)
• Barrier methods (condoms, diaphragms, spermicides)
• Methods based on understanding your monthly fertility pattern

Taming the Tongue

Taming the Tongue - James 3
3 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.
5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

James 3:9
9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.

Water-cooler gossip, slander, harassment, disparagement of competitors—who has never been injured by harsh words in the workplace, and who has never injured others?

Two Kinds of Wisdom
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Hearing and Doing the Word

19 You must understand this, my beloved:let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Proverbs 12:18

18 Rash words are like sword thrusts,but the tongue of the wise brings healing, but he is also aware of the tongue’s death-dealing powers. Many Christians rightly take care not to harm others through harsh speech at church. Shouldn’t we be just as careful at work not to “curse those who are made in the likeness of God”?

 

Genesis The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language by C. H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson was recommended to me by a woman at a church that I visited when I was on a business trip to California. The main thesis of the book is that many Chinese characters show evidence that the ancient Chinese were familiar with Jewish monotheism and the creation story as told in the early chapters of Genesis. I was not entirely unfamiliar with this startling claim. I remember that when I was a child, my parents pointed out to me that the Chinese character 船 (ship) was composed of the characters 舟 (boat), 八 (eight), and 口 (mouth or, synecdochally, person), and that there were eight people on Noah’s ark—Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. The 船 example is mentioned in The Discovery of Genesis as appearing in “a footnote of a Mandarin textbook used by a missionary,” but the book goes much further, and dissects a large number of Chinese characters in a similar fashion to demonstrate their connection with the Genesis narrative. To skip ahead to the punchline, I find that the authors’ evidence for their main thesis is rather thin. It is a well-known psychological phenomenon that once you are convinced that a pattern is present, then everything will seem to confirm it, even if objectively there is nothing there. For example, in Chapter 8, the authors write: The first human conception is recorded in the Chinese written language as a son. The word pregnant 孕 is made up of two symbols, is 乃 and a son 子. This character even looks pregnant, with the son contained within the larger figure! I am happy to agree that the presence of 子 inside 孕 was intended (by the ancient Chinese who invented the character) to be a visual representation of a son inside its mother, but does the existence of this character really confirm the thesis that the ancient Chinese were familiar with the story of Eve giving birth to her son Cain? The authors think so, but I do not.

Discovery of Genesis in Chinese




For another example that I find even less believable, in Chapter 6 the authors discuss the radical 豸 (reptile, according to the authors, although I have always thought of this as animal or even pig), and see the three strokes 彡 (feathers or hair) in it as confirming the theory that the serpent in Genesis originally possessed wings and stood upright, before God cursed it to crawl on its belly. Another issue that arises repeatedly through the book is that some of the characters that the authors dissect pictographically are, in my opinion, more plausibly explained phonetically. For example, in Chapter 7, the authors analyze 躲 (to hide) as 身 乃 木 (body is tree) and draw a connection to the story of Adam and Eve hiding among the trees from God after they realized that they were naked. However, 朵 is a homophone of 躲, and it seems more likely to me that the origin of the character 躲 is phonetic. Similarly, the authors analyze 赶 (drive out or expel) as having the radical 走 (go or walk)—so far so good—and that the 干 (offender) on the right is there because the first expulsion—from Eden—involved the expulsion of the offenders, Adam and Eve. The first worry I have is that I believe 赶 is a simplified character and of relatively recent origin (the traditional character being 趕), and I do not see how a character that was invented in the 20th century can provide any support for the authors’ thesis. But even if I am wrong about this and 赶 is an ancient character, it seems likely to me that the presence of 干 is phonetic, since 赶 and 干 are homophones (except for tone). To be fair, in the epilog, Nelson does recognize that some of the character dissections are individually not so convincing. However, using the analogy of a mosaic, she maintains that while each component of the picture looks unconvincing in isolation, together they form a compelling picture. Similarly, in Footnote 5 of Chapter 3, the possibility of alternative phonetic analyses is discussed at some length. I remain unconvinced, but readers can judge for themselves. Having expressed my overall skepticism, I would now like to pick out what I would consider to be the top ten examples from the book, listed in the order in which they appear. 1. 先 (first) = 丿 (life, according to the authors, though I had not heard this interpretation before), 土 (soil), and 人 (person). 2. 元 (beginning) = 二 人 (two people). 3. 婪 (covet) = two 木 (trees, of life and of the knowledge of good and evil) and a 女 (woman). 4. 禁 (forbidden) = two 木 (trees) and a 示 (deity or statement). 5. 兇 (brutal) looks like, and is pronounced the same as, 兄 (elder brother), i.e., Cain, who killed Abel. 6. 犧 (sacrifice) = 牛 羊 秀 戈 (ox sheep lovely spear). 7. 上帝 (God) is pronounced ShangDi which resembles שַׁדַּי (Shaddai, one of the Judaic names of God). 8. 沿 (continue) = 氵 八 口 (water eight people); compare the aforementioned analysis of 船 (ship). 9. 乱 (confusion) contains the word 舌 (tongue), which the authors suggest is an allusion to Babel; note, though, that again I have the impression that 乱 is a simplified character of recent origin. 10. 遷 (migrate) = 西 大 卩 辶 (west big division walk), which the authors regard as a post-Babel reference; but note that the interpretation of 卩 as division is a bit obscure. If you find these examples compelling, then I would recommend reading the book for the full account; you may also want to read the sequel, Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn't Solve (which I have not read). But if not, then I doubt that looking at the full list of examples will be any more persuasive to you. Posted January 2014