The Zika Virus

WRJ Board Statement: October 2016

“Whoever saves a life is considered to have saved the entire world.” Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5. “Danger to life and health is of greater religious concern than other matters.” Hullin 9b. “Health care is the most important communal service for [a government] to provide its residents.” Mishneh Torah, Hilchot De’ot IV:23.

Women of Reform Judaism has a long tradition of advocating for effective health policies, including national and international health policies and health policies affecting families, women and children. We have supported both medical research and the dissemination of information regarding infectious diseases. (Child and Maternal Welfare, Executive Committee Statement 1945; Point IV [of the Mutual Security Administration of the United States], Resolution, 1953; AIDS, Resolution, 1985; Women’s Health Care, Resolution, 1991; Medical Research and Clinical Practice, Resolution, 1995; Health Issues, Resolution, 1999; Children’s Health and the Environment, Board Statements 2001 and 2003.)

On February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus to be a global public health emergency. The first appearance of the Zika virus in the Western hemisphere came to the world’s attention in Brazil in 2015 and since then the virus has quickly spread throughout South America, the Caribbean, and now to the United States.

The Zika virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito, the same insect that spreads the dengue and chikungunya viruses. The Aedes mosquito is found throughout North and South America, except in colder regions such as parts of Canada and Chile, and also in Asia. The virus can also be spread from mother to child and through sexual transmission.

Cases of Zika virus disease have been reported in both the United States and Canada. In the United States, over 43 locally acquired mosquito-borne Zika cases and over 3,100 travel-associated cases have been reported.

While many people infected with Zika have no symptoms or mild symptoms, in some rare cases individuals infected with the Zika virus will develop Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune disease affecting the nervous system, causing muscle weakness or in some cases paralysis.

Moreover, the Zika virus in pregnant women is strongly linked to microcephaly, a birth defect causing infants to be born with an underdeveloped brain. Infants born with microcephaly die if the brain is so underdeveloped that it cannot regulate the functions vital to life. In less severe cases, the child will face intellectual disability and developmental delays. The Zika virus has also been linked to other severe fetal brain defects. The risks of harm to a developing fetus exposed to Zika in utero as well as to continuing risks to the infant after birth, are as yet not fully known. According to the CDC, within the United States, at least 731 pregnant women have tested positive for Zika virus infection, and of these pregnancies 18 infants were born with birth defects so far.

Adequate and reliable federal funding is needed for research and prevention, to develop testing, treatments and vaccines, and to help state and local governments prepare for and mitigate the spread of the virus in their communities. This funding must continue until the Zika virus is no longer a serious public health threat in North America.

We, the Board of Directors of the Women of Reform Judaism, therefore:

  1. Call on Congress to ensure that adequate and ongoing financial resources are appropriated to expedite research, education, and prevention, speed the development and testing of a Zika vaccine and Zika treatments and testing, allow easier access to testing with prompt result reporting, and ensure that states and communities have the resources they need to fight the mosquito that carries the virus and to meet the public health needs of their citizens.
  2. Call on our sisterhoods, women’s groups, and individual members throughout the world to advocate for legislation in their local communities and countries to fund Zika related research and Zika prevention measures.
  3. Call on our sisterhoods, women’s groups, and individual members throughout the world to promote education about the Zika virus, its impact on human health, and the ways individuals and communities can protect against the virus.