THE World Health Organisation has declared the possible links between Zika virus and microcephaly in babies and other neurological emergencies a "public health emergency of international concern" (“Fears over the Zika virus prompt blood donation ban”, The Herald, February 4). The virus was discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947 by two Scottish scientists, George Dick, a pathologist trained in Edinburgh, and Alexander Haddow, an entomologist trained in Glasgow.
It is good to see that our scientists still busy researching the virus; a collaborative programme of research on Zika between the Medical Research Council Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow and scientists in Pernambuco in Brazil has just been announced. This is in addition to the £1 million of UK money that the Research Council made available this week for Zika research. The Medical Research Council is a jewel in the crown of science, not only in Britain, but in the world. It supported Alexander Fleming. It is a great British institution. I hope that it remains so.
Hugh Pennington,
13 Carlton Place, Aberdeen.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here