As my colleague [link url= “http://edmdigest.com/author/mmills/” title= “Matt Mills“] has noted in [link url= “https://amuedge.com/edm-tuesday-briefing-who-declares-zika-emergency-oregon-protests-continue-feds-to-review-san-francisco-police/” title= “today’s daily briefing,“] The World Health Organization has declared a world health emergency because of the Zika virus. This warning must not be taken lightly, nor an assumption made that it will pass. Conditions are such that it would be an unlikely miracle if that were to be the case.
As we’ve [link url= “https://amuedge.com/zika-the-new-aids/” title= “discussed previously,“] the threat from Zika has a couple of strikes against it: we ARE an advanced civilization with medical knowledge and research capabilities unsurpassed in human history. However, we also have several strikes against us. In particular:
- The virus is pervasive and nasty
- There is no known vaccine or cure
- The effects are lifelong and debilitating
- The virus is spread by mosquitoes
- Mosquitoes spread
- We are enhancing conditions for mosquitoes to spread by doing little to nothing about climate change
And the list could go on.
As of this writing, the CDC reports that it is [link url= “http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/01/health/cdc-frieden-zika-explained/” title= “unlikely for the Zika virus to become prevalent in the United States.“] However, the problem with predictions is that they’re often wrong–and the CDC is not in the business of frightening the public, so this prediction has to be taken in the context of the factors that may make it wrong.
In the bottom line, to deal with this emerging threat, our actions as Emergency and Disaster Management professionals must be threefold:
- We must support the full effort of the CDC to develop the medical tools needed
- We must be ready with mosquito suppression activities if the vector mosquito is found in the US
- We must get serious about battling climate change
More things for the planning and preparation list. As our modern world continues to evolve at an increasing rate, the odds that the number of things on the list will go down is pretty small.
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