Does anybody know what company this is? Greg
The Next Pandemic Is Here... Here's What You Should Know
The Stansberry Digest <customerservice@exct.stansberryresearch.com>
To greg17jvs@yahoo.com
Today at 5:03 PM
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March 2, 2016
The next 'pandemic' is here… 'Three to four million could be infected'… What you should know about Zika… A vaccine could already be here… The latest from P.J. O'Rourke…
As if we didn't have enough to worry about…
The U.S. stock market appears to be starting a bear market… Credit markets are as stressed as they've been since the last financial crisis… Central banks are as clueless as ever… And it looks like American voters will have the pleasure of "choosing" between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton this fall (be sure to see the latest essay from contributing editor P.J. O'Rourke below).
Now, you can add another big concern to the list…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") reports Zika – a frightening virus spread by mosquitoes – has officially reached "pandemic" levels in South America. As a result, it has already moved its emergency operations center to its highest activation status – Level 1 – for only the fourth time in history.
The World Health Organization is also concerned… It says Zika is "spreading explosively," and could infect as many as 4 million people in the Americas this year alone.
This is because it's spread by a particular species of tropical mosquito – Aedes aegypti. Unlike most mosquitoes, which bite mostly at night, mosquitoes of this species are known as "aggressive" daytime biters. This means they're most active when most people are, too.
While mosquitoes are the primary route of transmission to date, the CDC recently confirmed that the virus can also be sexually transmitted.
According to the CDC, about one in five people who become infected with the virus becomes ill. The illness typically lasts from several days to a week, and the most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis (eye inflammation), muscle pain, and headache.
But there is growing evidence linking Zika to a serious birth defect in babies of mothers who have been infected while pregnant. Microcephaly, as it's known, is a condition in which the baby's head (and often brain) is far smaller than normal, often leading to developmental problems.
But that's not all…
A new study, published Monday in prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, suggests Zika could also be linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome ("GBS") in adults. GBS is a rare condition that causes the body's immune system to attack peripheral nerves by mistake, leading to muscle weakness, breathing problems, and, in severe cases, paralysis or death.
The study analyzed patient blood samples from the last outbreak of Zika – in French Polynesia during 2013 and 2014 – and found evidence the virus could cause GBS. As lead author, Arnaud Fontanet of the Institut Pasteur in France, explained…
This is the first study to look at a large number of patients who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome following Zika virus infection and provide evidence that Zika virus can cause GBS. Most of the patients with GBS reported they had experienced symptoms of Zika virus infection on average six days before any neurological symptoms, and all carried Zika virus antibodies.
If the current outbreak behaves like the last, the study's authors predict as many as one in 4,000 people infected with Zika could ultimately develop GBS.
While the outbreak is most severe in South American countries like Brazil, where more than 1.5 million cases have been reported, the virus has already spread throughout most of Central America and Mexico.
It's also spreading quickly in U.S. territories like the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico. In fact, a report in yesterday's Washington Post said there are now 117 confirmed cases in Puerto Rico. That's four times more than in January, and officials predict at least one in five Puerto Ricans will become infected. The territory has already declared a state of emergency due to the outbreak.
To date, the CDC reports there are 107 confirmed cases of Zika in the U.S. But importantly, none of these were "locally acquired, vector-borne" cases.
That means none of these individuals was infected by a mosquito in the U.S. Instead, most were infected while traveling to another country. And several others were infected through sexual contact with someone else who had been infected while traveling.
In other words, if you haven't traveled to these countries, and haven't had contact with anyone who has, your risk of infection today is extremely small.
But that could soon change…
Officials say it's unlikely we'll see true pandemic levels of Zika here in the U.S. for a number of reasons. For example, more folks live and work in sealed, air-conditioned homes and offices in the U.S. than in poorer South and Central American countries. Access to health education and services is also higher.
But that doesn't mean Zika won't be a problem here, too…
According to official data, Aedes aegypti is already present in many southern states, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, and parts of Tennessee, New Mexico, and California. It's likely only a matter of time before Zika arrives in one or more of these states.
In addition, some researchers believe this mosquito species' range may be even greater than believed. These mosquitoes are able to breed in very small pools of water – even as small as an overturned bottle cap – making them hard to track. And a recent study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed these warm-climate mosquitoes are surviving and breeding in small pockets as far north as Washington, D.C. As the study's authors told news network CNN today…
If [we] had just told people that these mosquitoes had overwintered in Washington, D.C., they wouldn't believe [us]. Those mosquitoes shouldn't have been there.
It's really weird that [they're] here, so who knows where else [they are]?
Today, there is no treatment for Zika… The only way to prevent infection is to avoid getting bitten by an infected mosquito, and avoid those who have been. That's obviously much easier said than done.
Fortunately, we may be close to a solution. And our colleague Dave Lashmet – editor of the excellent Stansberry Venture advisory – has been all over this development from the beginning.
Last summer – before Zika was making headline news – Dave identified one tiny drugmaker that was developing an incredible new vaccine technology.
In simple terms, it was working on something like an "antibiotic" for the virus world… a technology that could potentially be used against a number of different viruses, rather than just one. As Dave explained in the August issue of Stansberry Venture…
This is a world-changing possibility for medicine that has never before existed… a potential antidote to viral infections.
Most viral infections are untreatable: When a virus attacks your body, your immune system is on its own to fight off the bug. If it succeeds, you recover. Otherwise, it can fight the virus to a stalemate – leaving you with a chronic condition – or it fails, and the virus eventually kills you. Regardless, no pill will help make the virus go away.
We've made great progress lately with hepatitis C. And acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is now controllable if you can tolerate seven different classes of drugs. But broadly speaking, we have never had an equivalent to antibiotics or antifungals when it comes to viruses. Until now…
This tiny company has been quietly working for months on a preventative vaccine for Zika. And it now has one.
This vaccine has already been shown to work in mice, and is in larger animal testing now.
Because there is currently no treatment for Zika, animal testing and a small human safety trial should be enough to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Dave says "provisional" approval could be granted in less than a year.
But Stansberry Venture subscribers likely won't have to wait even that long to profit…
If the vaccine works as expected, Dave believes a big vaccine maker like Merck (MRK), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), or Pfizer (PFE) is virtually guaranteed to buy this tiny company at a huge premium. Today's investors could quickly double their money or more.
That may sound unbelievable, but if you know anything about Dave's track record, it won't surprise you.
Last year alone, Dave recommended four separate companies just days or weeks before they soared 100% or more.
And that was out of just 11 total recommendations in 2015. That's right… 36% of Dave's Stansberry Venture recommendations doubled last year.
And Dave believes this tiny vaccine maker could be the next.
Incredibly, despite the recent positive news on the company's Zika vaccine, shares are still trading below Dave's maximum buy price. But that may not be the case much longer.
