Challenging the theory that the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil is the cause of the birth defect microcephaly, is a report from the Argentine doctors’ organisation A group of South American doctors are saying that the brain deformities found in newborn babies are caused by the mass fumigation -in the poorest areas of Brazil – with a chemical larvicide, and NOT by mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus. GMWatch Reports: The increase in this birth defect, in which the baby is born with an abnormally small head and often has brain damage, was quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. However, according to the Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns, the Ministry failed to recognise that in the area where most sick people live, a chemical larvicide that produces malformations in mosquitoes was introduced into the drinking water supply in 2014. This poison, Pyriproxyfen, is used in a State-controlled programme aimed at eradicating disease-carrying mosquitoes. The Physicians added that the Pyriproxyfen is manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese “strategic partner” of Monsanto. Pyriproxyfen is a growth inhibitor of mosquito larvae, which alters the development process from larva to pupa to adult, thus generating malformations in developing mosquitoes [...]