Prevent Zika birth defects with Vitamin D

Zika birth problems can be virtually prevented when women have enough vitamin D during their first trimester:

• Vitamin D strengthens woman's immune system
• Vitamin D strengthens the placenta immune system

Enough vitamin D might be provided by a single dose of 200,000 IU vitamin D

• $1 approximate cost of 200,000 IU of vitamin D*
• More vitamin D needed if overweight: (500,000 IU if obese - Vitamin D gets locked away in fatty tissue)

This same immune system benefit is obtained from about 4 days of sunbathing**

• Vitamin D from the sun appears to provide about 3X more benefit than capsule.
• Sunbathing for a day provides about 16,000 IU of vitamin D
  **Note: more ‘’days’’ are needed for those with darker skin or if overweight
  *Note: A single large dose (200,000 IU) strengthens immune systems for more than 1 month, thus one
     50,000 IU capsule = benefit to immune system of about 1 day of sunbathing

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Cost concerns:

• Funding options include:
  Donations by citizens of each country
  Donations by foreign citizens - similar to disaster relief
  Money from tourist organizations/companies
  Money from AID agencies
  Paid by the pregnant woman getting the vitamin D
  Donation of vitamin D by suppliers
• Education/marketing costs
• Distribution costs to be covered
• Number of pregancies (30,000 to 1,000,000)
• Number of countries (1 to 30)

Timing - Needs to be started today!

Assuming 400 million people live in Zika affected countries
Assuming 10 pregancies annually per 1,000 population
Assuming only 1 in 4 are near Zika infected regions
About 1 million pregnant women can benefit from strengthened immune systems

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Other situations to be considered soon

1. Woman might become pregnant (might need booster shot of vitamin D every 2 months)
2. Man or woman traveling to a Zika region
3. Woman already suspected to have Zika (with or without symptoms)
4. Woman previously had Zika and then got pregnant (probably no vitamin D needed)
5. Probably prevent Zika symptoms
6. Prevent GBS and other problems
7. Also reduce symptoms from Dengue, Chikungunya and other mosquito virus

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Microcephalic rates per 10,000 pregnancies

UK	1.2 Pre-Zika
US	10 Pre-Zika (4,800/year)
Brazil	95 per Zika infection during 1st trimester

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Vitamin D is a very cost effective way to not scare off the tourists

Expectation: fewer Zika birth problems ==> fewer tourists lost

Example Country	Annual $ Tourism	Annual births	Notes
Brazil	$ 1,900,000,000	3,000,000	1,000 confirmed Microcephalics as of April 14, 2016 3,000 still being investigated
Puerto Rico	$ 900,000,000	33,000	1 in 5 expected to get Zika PR is an open portal to US

See also VitaminDWiki

• All items in category Virus 1401 items
• Zika birth defects may be prevented by Vitamin D – May 2016
• How to significantly reduce your risk of contracting the Zika virus English
• virus Zika - ¿Cómo reducir significativamente su riesgo? Spanish
• Como reduzir significativamente o risco de contrair o vírus Zika Portuguese