Now we can add the Zika virus to things that go bump in the night. Headlines abound.
Like malaria, the Zika virus is spread by the mosquito. The mosquito is also the carrier of the most destructive infectious disease in the world – malaria, which threatens half the world and sickens a 200 million people each year, killing 400,000.
Have you ever wondered why malaria doesn’t return to Mississippi, a state it once plagued? We have plenty of mosquitoes. And if Zika and a host of other viruses can spread across continents, why not malaria?
The reason malaria doesn’t come back is because our lifestyles have changed so dramatically. Most Americans work inside in air-conditioned buildings. We drive air conditioned cars with the windows rolled up. We no longer sit outside on our porches in the evening. We are inside watching our big flat-screen TVs with the windows sealed and the air-conditioner humming. What’s a mosquito to do?
If Mississippians do by chance get malaria (which happened to a friend of mine on a mission trip to Honduras), they get sick and go to the hospital where there are no mosquitoes. The mosquitoes have to bite someone with malaria to spread the disease.
It is our lifestyle that has destroyed malaria. If we lost our cars, office jobs and air conditioners, malaria would come back quickly.
One threat of the Zika virus is that most people who get bitten carry the virus but don’t show symptoms. They may still feel fine and play tennis or golf or walk the dog where they can get bitten again and spread the disease.
Auto fatalities up
That being said, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over the Zika virus. There are much better things to worry about. Car accidents would be a good place to start.
After declining for 15 years, car fatalities spiked 7.5 percent last year to 35,200 deaths. That would be like a 9/11 terrorism event every month.
Americans are terrified of Zika and terrorism, but those dangers are statistically insignificant.
Meanwhile, Americans continue to speed, tailgate, text while driving, drink while driving and not wear seatbelts. Or how about my all time driving pet peeve — women putting on makeup while driving. It’s as though we have a death wish.
Heart disease kill 600,000 Americans each year — infinitely more than terrorism or Zika, but we still smoke and eat cheeseburgers and get fat. Where is our fear of heart disease?
The National Safety Council estimates 42,000 Americans a year dye from accidental overdoses of opoid painkillers. Now that is something to get scared about. But there are 1,000 terrorism stories in the media for every opoid overdose story.
Six thousand pedestrian are killed by cars in America. Yet every night I drive down my poorly lit street and see couples strolling with their baby carriage with no reflective material. They are invisible to me. Where is the well-deserved fear of getting run over?
Drowning kills 5,000 Americans a year. Ho-hum. Not much panic there. Falls kill 15,000, yet how many of us properly fear stairs and ladders. Fires and smoke kill 10,000. When was the last time you checked the batteries in your smoke alarm? Accidental poisonings kill 12,000. Where is the terror of that? Are your cleaning supplies properly secured from children?
Keeping perspective
The reality is this: We have grown accustomed to all sorts of truly dangerous things in life while we meanwhile panic about insignificant new threats such as terrorism and the Zika virus. This is bad thinking. We need to spend far more time reducing our risk to the real threats and putting things like Zika and terrorism into their proper statistical perspective.
While I am on the subject of mosquitoes, I want to respond a reader who wrote me a question that I have yet failed to answer. In a previous column, I had casually mentioned that I solved my mosquito problem in my backyard. “Please let the readers know how you got rid of the mosquitoes,” he implored. My apologies for the delay.
My solution to the mosquito problem was caused by a miscommunication with my wife. I had purchased the Terminix annual spraying plan. They use garlic oil encapsulated in beta-cyclodextrin. Meanwhile, Ginny had ordered the annual plan from Mosquito Authority. They use some other spray called Repel Plus (not sure what the chemical is.)
I was quite upset that I had double-ordered and fussed at Ginny about it. Then I noticed a strange thing. No mosquitoes. Zero. Neither Terminix or Mosquito Authority worked that well alone, but when combined – presto.
All of the sudden, my life changed. I could sit outside in the morning and enjoy my coffee. I wasn’t trapped inside my screen porch. I could have a drink at night out front or out back. I could sit for hours in my hammock. No problem. My life had changed. It was worth every penny.
Whitewater rafting in Africa
Right now I’m worried about other blood-sucking creatures. While in Africa, the boys and I whitewater rafted down the Zambezi just below Victoria Falls. It is some of the best whitewater rafting in the world, levels 3 – 5 for 20 miles. What an incredible adventure. The scenery in along the black rock river canyon was amazing. Although we didn’t flip, we were soaked.
Come to find out, the Zambezi River is endemic for schistosomiasis, the second most destructive infectious disease in the world after malaria. You get it by exposing yourself to fresh water in Africa. It plagues 200 million people in the world, killing 200,000 a year. Oh boy!
It is an amazing creature, like The Alien in miniature. First it goes through five life stages in river snails. Then as a microscopic water bug, it swims in the river until it finds some human skin to bore through. Then it has about five stages in humans, finally growing into a bizarre looking worm with multiple suckers a third of an inch long. It lives in your gut, bladder, liver and veins.
I found a study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on Americans who white water rafted in Africa. A fifth got infected.
There’s good news and bad news. These buggers (and most any other human worm) are easily killed with a simple pill (the same one you use to de-worm your dog.) The bad news is you have to wait two months until the worms are fully grown to kill them.
Like malaria, the changes in the lifestyles of Americans are now protecting us from a host of parasitic worms that have plagued humans for thousands of years
But before you get too cocky, let me give you something you really should worry about: The CDC reports millions of Americans host a variety of flukes, amoebas and worms without knowing it. Do you have pets? Children who run barefoot outdoors? Like sushi? Medium rare steaks? Believe in the five second rule? If so, you might consider doing for your yourself what you do for your dog: A good periodic de-worming.
Wyatt Emmerich is the editor and publisher of The Northside Sun, a weekly newspaper in Jackson. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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