Inside my house I sit and draw with my three-year-old. Suddenly she drops her purple crayon and yells, “Mosquito! And it’s a striped one!” She rushes over and covers my exposed belly, pulling my shirt down. She kisses the baby sister I carry inside, as though a piece of material and her love will be enough.
How did we get here? Guilt washes over me. I have directly contributed to my daughter’s paranoia. She is a strong-willed, inquisitive creature with a never ending supply of whys for every command. “Please shut the screen door,” I’ll say and she’ll say, “Hold on, I’m just getting…” all while leaving the door wide open. Or she’ll be standing outside throwing a tantrum because I will not come pick flowers with her. Eventually I found myself explaining to her about the Dengue outbreak and how dangerous it is for our newest member of the family.
The current Dengue Fever outbreak on the island of Hawaii became known in October of 2015. It may have started earlier. Somebody came to the Big Island sick with Dengue. This person was then bit by one of our Aedes mosquitoes. During the beginning of the outbreak the Health Department was very secretive about where the cases were, citing patient privacy. Instead of saying there were active cases down south, they just issued general statements about how the whole island should be vigilant against standing water. We live on island with dense foliage and many houses on water catchment tanks. The invasive mosquito has a very strong foothold here, and without knowing how or where to fight it residents were overwhelmed. Eventually beaches were closed, the Health Department started spraying, and more detailed maps were released.
October was also the month that we learned I was expecting my second child. Second children usually come with a little less fear. I took my organic prenatals and tried to eat well, but life is busy with family and work and you don’t have the same amount of time to pour over the pregnancy books. I wasn’t really concerned about the Dengue outbreak until I caught a news report in November that quoted Hawaii state senator Russell Ruderman. Ruderman said that the State Department of Health wasn’t doing enough to warn people about the Dengue outbreak and he was concerned because his wife was pregnant and lived on the Big Island. I stopped reading the article and paused. I knew that it was best to avoid sickness while pregnant, but until then I hadn’t fully thought about the implications of Dengue Fever while pregnant.
Thus the battle of mosquitoes and research began, even before I heard the word Zika. My husband repaired screens and we emptied standing water, but mostly just felt overwhelmed at the jungle of a yard we own. And I issued my own quarantine inside the house, which felt futile when the striped pests snuck into my car every time I opened the door. The Health Department showed up at the school I teach at twice to spray. I was hot, pregnant, and clothed in long, protective pants, teaching in a classroom with two walls of open-air louvres. Mosquitoes were in my classroom on a daily basis.
Then in December the Health Department came to my house. This was a bad sign. They knocked on a door we do not use and left pamphlets as though proselytizing. I immediately called the number back and asked if they would return. The lady was nice enough on the phone, but said if we missed them they probably wouldn’t return. She said if they came to my house it meant there was a case within 600 feet of us. I asked if there had been any cases at my school (still concerned over the lack of screens) and she said she wasn’t allowed to tell me. She said we could buy traps at Home Depot and then hung up the phone. I immediately drove to Home Depot only to find that they were out of traps with no idea when they would be restocked. This is the reality of living on an island.
And then the Zika virus became news. Horrible reports trickled out of Brazil of babies born with Microcephaly. Debates raged on my BabyCenter Birth Club. Pregnant women were irritated at the suggestion of canceling babymoons over a tiny insect. Normally more of a lurker than a poster, I had to respond to the mommies who said they would simply wear bugspray and avoid dusk. The mosquitoes that carry these viruses are not respecters of doors or times. They are opportunists who literally wait for a door to be opened so they can swarm inside. I tried to convey to these ladies the difficulty of preventing a bug bite. Usually I prefer organic products during pregnancy, but I coated myself with DEET and still found myself being swarmed by these pests.
In January I flew to Oahu for my anatomy scan. My husband had to work and Kaiser would only pay for my plane fare, so I found myself alone in a cold room with my shirt hiked up and goop spread on my belly. I held my breath as the wand hit my skin and my baby showed up on the screen. The technician said, “I’m taking my measurements and the doctor will go over everything with you after.” “Is the brain supposed to look like that?” I immediately asked. She gave me a sharp look and said, “I told you I can’t tell you anything.” I bit my lip and waited an eternity for the doctor. After he arrived and told me everything looked great I exhaled. Not because of Zika, but because pregnancy can be terrifying under the best circumstances. I cannot imagine the panic the women infected with Zika feel as they wait for brain scan measurements that won’t even show up until later.
The dry season came to Kona and everyone seemed to let down their guard. It should have been the time to cut back brush and reload traps. But the problem with mosquito-borne viruses is that you cannot just rely on your own precaution. If a neighbor has a pile of tires or a yard of bromeliads, the mosquitoes easily cross the human-made boundaries. Even in the dry times the Aedes eggs patiently wait near our homes. All they need is one spring shower to burst to life.
Spring break came and with it the rain. There were fewer and fewer cases of Dengue, so I had planned to spend my break attacking my yard, tearing down mosquito habitats. But the rains beat me to it. Within days the mosquitoes lurked outside my screen doors, biding their time, waiting. I closely followed the news on Zika. A few travel-related cases showed up on Maui and Oahu.
So here I am today. I am 31 weeks pregnant and terrified that Zika will make it to this island before my baby can safely be born. Even after she is born I wonder if she’ll be safe. Researchers are learning more and more about the Zika virus everyday. I am sure that Zika will make it to the U.S. sometime soon. If I hadn’t become pregnant so soon, I wonder if we would have waited out this Zika storm to become so. Pregnancy is complicated enough with timings of biological clocks, fertility, and life events. I do not live my life by fear, but I also know that there is a timing to everything. I hope that government takes this outbreak seriously for all the expectant mommas out there.
As for my oldest, I was putting her to sleep a few nights ago when she asked, “Momma, what made the dinosaurs all die?” I was way too sleepy to get into theories and was eager to close my tired eyes so I simply said, “I don’t know.” To which she replied, “I bet it was the mosquitoes.”
