Posted on 12/27/2016 4:14:23 PM PST by Hostage
What contracting Zika taught one traveler about traveling fearlessly
I remember looking down at my polka-dotted legs as I lay by the pool of a small hostel in El Tunco, El Salvador. As I fought the urge to scratch, I counted the number of mosquito bites. Thirty-seven. I had thirty-seven bites on my legs, not to mention a few on my arms and the one driving me crazy on my back. I shrugged, sprayed my legs with more 99.9 percent DEET spray, and continued basking in the sun. A week after I tallied up my bites, on the last day of my trip to Central America, I suddenly felt feverish and exhausted. The flight home was miserable and I was plagued with a bloody nose and ears that wouldn’t pressurize for hours.
Luckily, I had already scheduled a routine doctor’s appointment for three days after my return home. Between the fever and the full-body rash that developed, my doctor insisted on blood tests to check for various tropical mosquito-borne viruses. Among them: the dreaded Zika virus.
Now, anyone who owns a television, has access to the Internet, or reads the news knows about Zika. Images of small-headed newborns and warnings from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were plastered all over the place last spring, and it seemed that every time I blinked, another destination was placed on the “do not travel” list, due to Zika. At the time, I worked for a small travel agency and was well versed in Zika “fun facts” before traveling to Central America, but I wasn’t planning on getting pregnant anytime soon so saw no reason to cancel my trip.
By the time I officially received a positive diagnosis for Zika, I had no symptoms. The virus had already run its course, which usually lasts about a week. I had been through a fever, which gave way to red spots all over my body, followed by pain in my ankle and knee joints—all within the span of one week. After that? Nothing.
The worst effect I experienced was the multitude of people who asked me if I was OK in a tone of voice that said “yeah, you’re probably going to die.” No matter how many times I asserted that I was fine, I was always met with “puppy eyes” and disbelief. These people had been convinced by the intentionally terrifying images and stories all over the media that Zika was a horrific, life-changing disease. However, as it turns out, both the media and my concerned peers got one thing right: Zika did change my life.
Contracting the Zika virus taught me that all travel comes with risks. It could be the risk of terrorism, of danger, of getting lost, or of contracting a tropical disease. But with risks come rewards. If I hadn’t risked contracting Zika, there is so much I would have missed out on.
I would not have felt the thrill of being surrounded by volcanoes in Antigua, Guatemala. I would not have experienced a rush of excitement as I reached the top of an ancient Mayan pyramid in Copan, Honduras. My taste buds would have never savored the wonder of the Salvadoran pupusa. Zika changed my life because I learned that I would gladly endure one week of illness in order to experience the amazing things the world has to offer.
I’m no doctor and I can’t tell you what you should or should not do concerning your own health. But if you are afraid to visit a place because of a Zika-related CDC warning, I can tell you that the risk can be worth the reward. If you and your partner are not looking to get pregnant in the near future, the Zika virus generally need not be feared. Only one in five people who contract Zika actually present any symptoms at all, and my own experience was not that bad. If you can live through the flu, you can easily live through Zika. The off-chance risk that you’ll both contract the virus and present symptoms is not worth canceling your trip or avoiding a wonderful destination altogether.
There will always be some disaster, some disease, some reason to stay hidden at home, but with so many amazing places to see, cultures to experience, and people to meet, traveling abroad is worth the risk. No virus is going to hold me back from experiencing the world, and it shouldn’t hold you back either.
I liked the Gold, but it was apparently just me and the Marketers. Oh, well.
What are the stats on unplanned pregnancies in this country? The annual abortion rate gives us a glimpse of this number. Approximately 700,000 babies slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs each year because they were inconvenient and not intended. How many more pregnancies are unintended? But this narcissist says, don't worry about getting pregnant and contacting the Zika virus. As long as you don't plan to conceive you are good to go.
If I hadn’t traveled I’d never have had crabs from Thailand, clap from Saigon and a shiv from Angeles City. AHH, the thrill of the multicultural exchange.
HIV was an epidemic scare because of blood banks having no restrictions on HIV carrying donors.
Today, we have laws governing homosexual donors. They don’t like being castigated as high-risk, so they try to take down the laws regulating blood banks because it offends them.
You are a very bad dog.
ArOOOOOO!!!
Question: Can a human spread zika to mosquitos back home? You get bit by zika mosquito, you go home, you get sick but have been bit by mosquitos at home. The home mosquitos bite your pregnant neighbor and hurt her baby. Is that possible?
It is getting quite pleasant down there since all the criminals have decamped to the USA and most of the rest of the population is following. The weather is nice and you can’t go hungry, just reach something off the nearest tree.
Alison Krauss such a beautiful voice. Would love to hear her and Union Station in concert again.
Venezuela is a great place to vacation, with 17 dollar a day all-inclusive tours. They have rivers with pink dolphins. They have Angel Falls. And you would have the entire country almost to yourselves since tourism has dropped by 80 percent since the socialists took over.
And it is cheap, cheaper than Nicaragua and Haiti, the two poorest countries in the Americas. You can get a hotel room for $5 a night and eat a great meal for $3, tips and beer included. You can fly around the country for between $7 to $20.
Guilty.
DEET works! Every bug stays away!
Of course it’s possible. That’s why it’s a public health risk.
A lot of people don’t know about mosquito eradication and minimization methods. We are very fortunate to live in an advanced society where we are smart enough to know what to do. But the third world societies are a whole different story.
UV Zappers and citronella candles are always good to have but foam blanketing swamps and separating human dwellings from animal barns and stables are part of the easy solution. Many third worlders will sleep in a loft over their pigs and cattle which invites disease spread by mosquitos.
There’s a whole science, lore and methodology to controlling mosquito populations. I am grateful to the people that devote their lives to it.
Anyone who minimizes real Influenza has never actually had it. The minor upper respiratory tract infections that people call flu are not flu.
Ok, well if you’re down there enjoying life, you might start preparing to trek back up here because there’s a good chance the decamped are coming back for a permanent visit.
I’ll bet you hate Trump for that!
>the thrill of being surrounded by volcanoes
Just ride a motorcycle in cager traffic...even more thrilling.
It is said she could sing the pages of an old phone book and make it sound like music from heaven.
I think she’s still single. Just damn!
>since tourism has dropped by 80 percent since the socialists took over.
Plus, you get an 80% better chance at getting raped, mugged, killed or otherwise copulated.
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