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
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
Other situations to be considered soon
- Woman might become pregnant (might need booster shot of vitamin D every 2 months)
- Man or woman traveling to a Zika region
- Woman already suspected to have Zika (with or without symptoms)
- Woman previously had Zika and then got pregnant (probably no vitamin D needed)
- Probably prevent Zika symptoms
- Prevent GBS and other problems
- Also reduce symptoms from Dengue, Chikungunya and other mosquito virus
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 |
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
1375 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
Prevent Zika birth defects with Vitamin D6319 visitors, last modified 19 May, 2016, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category)