Update : Zika virus targets brain cells in developing brains.
The title says it all. According to a number of doctors the terrible birth defect called microcephaly, that causes babies to have smaller skulls than they should, may be caused by a Monsanto larvecide and not by a mosquito.
“However, they fail to recognise 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.” (source)
It can be hard to detect, you have insects that spread disease, then you fight it with insecticides, so both factors are in the environment, both can be the cause of the birth defects. It would be super tragic however if Europe in fighting Zika carrying mosquitos would introduce insecticides that cause the defects, and then conclude that although a lot of poison was used, the incidental case of Zika (perhaps having passed unnoticed by the patient) still makes infant victims. So tragic.
“chemical control is contaminating the environment as well as people, that it is not decreasing the amount of mosquitoes” (source)
But Monsanto would have killed, and in 18 months the vaccin would be there and fighting the mosquito may have been succesfull. We would never know unless we try to correllate insecticide use in regions without Zika with microcephaly incident.
The comments in the report are not mild, maybe this is the first time that the prevalence of striving for commercial gain at the cost of effectiveness against a problem by chemical and pharmaceutical companies is exposed.