After years of financial distress and struggle, the Brazilian economy grew by 1%, according to government agencies.
During the first three months of 2017, the Brazilian GDP grew by 1% as compared to the two previous years. This translates to an increase of nearly $500 billion dollars in production of goods and services.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represents the total value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period, indicating the size and evolution of a country’s economy.
Back before the Zika virus had taken root well before it became prominent. According to researchers, it launched its epidemic for possibly a year or more before it was confirmed. With this new data in mind, not one, but two different groups are focusing on locating the exact origin source of the Zika virus in its origin country of Brazil.
Researchers used genetic information from Zika virus (illustrated) to follow its spread among affected regions in South and Central America and the Caribbean.
ON THE MOVE
The Zika virus probably arrived in the Western Hemisphere from somewhere in the Pacific more than a year before it was detected, a new genetic analysis of the epidemic shows. Researchers also found that as Zika fanned outward from Brazil, it entered neighboring countries and South Florida multiple times without being noticed.
Although Zika quietly took root in northeastern Brazil in late 2013 or early 2014, many months passed before Brazilian health authorities received reports of unexplained fever and skin rashes. Zika was finally confirmed as the culprit in April 2015.
The World Health Organization did not declare the epidemic a public health emergency until February 2016, after babies of Zika-infected mothers began to be born with severe neurological problems. Zika, which is carried by mosquitoes, infected an estimated 1 million people in Brazil alone in 2015, and is now thought to be transmitted in 84 countries worldwide.
Although Zika’s path was documented starting in 2015 through records of human cases, less was known about how the virus spread so silently before detection, or how outbreaks in different parts of Central and South America were connected. Now two groups working independently, reporting online May 24 in Nature, have compared samples from different times and locations to read the history recorded in random mutations of the virus’s 10 genes.
One team, led by scientists in the United Kingdom and Brazil, drove more than 1,200 miles across Brazil — “a Top Gear–style road trip,” one scientist quipped — with a portable device that could produce a complete catalog of the virus’s genes in less than a day. A second team, led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, analyzed more than 100 Zika genomes from infected patients and mosquitoes in nine countries and Puerto Rico. Based on where the cases originated, and the…
Google is expanding its Android Pay mobile payment service to more markets, saying that soon it’ll be available in Brazil, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Canada. The company also promised that a streamlined mobile checkout experience would be coming soon for PayPal users, building on top of Google’s existing partnerships with Visa and Mastercard.
Reports surfaced this week that Android Pay would be available in more cities. Previously, only those in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Singapore, Poland, New Zealand, Ireland, and a few others.
Due to almost a full elimination of recorded Zika cases, Brazil has just announced on Thursday that the virus is no longer an official public health crises.
Zika wasn’t connected as the cause of microcephaly until 2015, when the government recognized the virus as a full-on epidemic. Microcephaly, which is shown to cause birth defects, an enlarged head, and stunted speech in newborns, affected thousands of children after the initial outbreak.
According to Brazil’s Ministry of Health, there have been 95% less reported Zika cases in the country during 2017, as opposed to 2016. Sources say that there have only been 7,900 reported cases between January and April of this year, as opposed to…
24-year-old Mariana Mendes from Brazil was born with a birthmark that covers a large part of her face, but that didn’t stop her from modeling for a stunning photo shoot recently in order to make a powerful statement about what it means to be beautiful.
The birthmark, which covers part of her nose, her right eye, and her right cheek, is called congenital melanocytic nevus, and it’s estimated to affect just one in every 20,000 babies. It’s caused by an increased amount of pigment beneath the skin, which makes the affected area look darker as a result. Mariana underwent laser surgery treatments when she was just five years old in order to reduce the nevus because her mother was afraid she’d be bullied for it, but as you can see below, the stylist assistant from Juiz de Fora couldn’t be more proud of being different.
“I feel more beautiful and totally different from other people because I have a nevus,” said Mariana. “There are many people who stare and who don’t like…
