Zika

Nearly all of the volunteers and all of my community by now have gotten Zika, including me. All symptoms vary and luckily mine was a mild chase. The symptoms are often a rash, fever, a sore throat, body aches, and a killer headache for a few days. My was mostly a killer headache during the forth of July. One of my women recently gave a talk in the clinic about the dangers of mosquito born illness, including Zika, to warn the community about how to protect themselves- use mosquito nets, cover water tubs, etc. My communities members cant afford bug spray and often don’t have electricity for fans at night to prevent mosquitoes from landing on them. Luckily my community is fairly dry, but many of my community members have swarms of mosquitoes that come hunt after their blood daily. Recently, through “RELODECA” a regional network of health promoters through Peace Corps has help to set-up a fumigating program. My community was able to raise money and mobilize workers to fumigate the entire community. They did this with little help from me, giving me hope that these projects will hopefully be sustainable after I am gone. As of now I am not able to take a test to 100% confirm that what I had was Zika as the Zika test is not perfected yet and often gives false reports of dengue. Due to the inaccuracy of the test the results would be inconclusive and the hope is that in the future there will be a more exact method. For now I advice my peers with Zika to take it easy, drink lots of fluids, and try to ride out the discomfort.