Zika Virus

Zika Virus has not reached Indiana -- at least not in any significant numbers.  It is true, that there have been a few cases of people who have travelled elsewhere and brought it back to the state, but in general, it isn't here.  It won't likely come here in significant numbers either.  The mosquito which carries it, the Aedes Aegypti, apparently finds our winters a little too cold to want to live around here.

I suppose, I should back track, since not every one knows what Zika Virus is.  Zika Virus is (as its name implies) a virus.  It is carried by mosquitoes and generally causes a flu like illness, with fevers, body aches, tired feelings, and sometimes a rash.  Most people don't suffer serious complications from it and get over it in a few days, but unfortunately, when pregnant women get this, the virus causes significant problems for the baby, in particular causing poor brain development and microcephaly in many cases.

Zika Virus has been around since the 1950s in Asia, but in 2015, it came to Central and South America, where it has been wrecking havoc.  In fact, the country of El Salvador recommended that women in their country not get pregnant for the next two years while they try to figure things out.  Poor countries are trying to figure out what to do in this chaotic situation.

As of right now, there is no vaccine or cure for the disease.

It is, perhaps, easy for people living in Indiana to think to themselves:  "Well, that's their problem.  Hope they get figured out, but at least it isn't coming here," even as they cancel their trips to the Caribbean.  Our tendency as humans, is to care about things as they affect us as individuals, or people that we know.  The farther something is from our home and the places we go, the less we care about it and the less we are inclined to try to help.

Zika Virus will likely come to the southern United States and perhaps that alone makes it worthy of our interest, but I would hope that the fact that this disease affects humans would be enough to make us care. 

I hear politicians say that we are too poor to help others around the world and that it isn't in our interest to help them, anyway.  I would pray that we are never too poor to give to those in need.  For whether it is Zika Virus or, Ebola Virus, or some unknown disease next year, helping those who are suffering, regardless of our own self-interest, is the loving thing to do. 

That's plenty of reason, in my book, to care.