Microcephaly Cases Over Estimated...

Over-Reported Casesof Microcephaly in Brazil

Since October of last year, 4,783 cases of babies born with microcephaly have been reported by national hospitals in Brazil. Hospital numbers reporting cases of babies with microcephaly have increased ever since the Zika epidemic became known. In fact, before anyone had even heard about the virus, only 150 cases of babies with microcephaly were reported annually. Due to the impacting increase, Brazil’s government is now considering the guidelines they gave doctors, hospitals and health officials to report these type of cases. They intend to reduce the amount of false alarms and misdiagnosed cases. At this time, many cases remain under investigation to further deduce how many microcephaly cases were not really microcephaly victims.

Out of all of the reported cases and the ones that have been examined, only 404 have been official microcephaly suffering babies. However, of these only 17 of the tested positive for the Zika virus. In fact, 709 babies have been determined to not have microcephaly at all misguiding the epidemic numbers and increasing the alarm of society. Though the Zika virus is a very serious virus that can affect many newborn babies, it is important to make sure that health care officials or hospitals are really certain that a child has microcephaly before it is reported as another case. 

Solving the Puzzles of Mimicry in Nature

A New York Times article discusses the recent advances in the understanding of mimicry occurring in nature. This study comes from a similar location to that of Charles Darwin's studies: Brazil. The main individual of study is the butterfly. Mimicry is when an population begins to adapt similar colors, patterns and overall looks to another. In butterfly species, a non-poisonous population will begin to mimic the colors and patterns of poisonous populations. The benefits of this natural occurrence are numerous and help protect the non poisonous populations from becoming prey. Not only were non-poisonous populations mimicking poisonous ones, but poisonous species began mimicking each other. Mueller theorized that in this fashion, the butterflies formed a sort of "army" where all other species would know they were not the be eaten.

Until recently, however, how mimicry occurred was unknown. That was until Mueller proposed that mimicry stemmed from two sources: independent evolution or gene swapping. The genes controlling the causes of mimicry have been recently identified. Using this knowledge, it is safe to say that source of mimicry comes form both mechanisms working cooperatively. Although interbreeding is rarely seen between different populations, due to the extreme advantages of mimicry, one individual can spread the gene through the population quickly.

This mimicry is crucial to the survival of butterfly species in Brazil.