There´s a Fever in the Air

Ain’yu feelin’ it? Thaysuh feevuh en the aye’! Thas raught— Ahhh sayed, uh feevuh!!

A yellow fever, to be exact. All of Paraguay is “feeling” it, too, with some six confirmed cases in the San Pedro district, one case here in a suburb of Asuncion, and sixty-six more people thought to be sick or dead with the tropical disease, although their cases have yet to be confirmed by medical authorities. Thus la fiebre amarilla, or the yellow fever, is all the rage in newspapers, chat around water coolers, and just about every other place where ideas are communicated in this sometimes crazy and sensationalized culture.

This time, though, the people may have good reason to be worried. Yellow fever, like Dengue and malaria and a host of other illnesses, is a virus carried person to person via a species of black and white tiger-striped mosquito. In a tropical environment like this one, it’s not uncommon to wake up with legs and arms covered by these ugly insects. Once infected, though, the virus’s host is stricken down with a terrible fever that lasts for a few days. After this dreadful period of time, the person may seem to feel better and improve on the outside, but the sickness continues to secretly wreak havoc on the inside, causing internal bleeding and eventually multiple organ failure. When the kidneys shut down, the body becomes poisoned and the skin turns yellow; hence the name, “yellow” fever. What makes the fever even more notorious is that once you get it, there’s nothing doctors can do to help you except to alleviate the symptomatic pains. About half the people who get yellow fever die from it.

Usually the disease is confined to remote jungles and extreme boon docks. When I traveled to Egypt, for example, I didn’t need a vaccination to go to Luxor in the center of the country, but had I gone all the way south to Aswan the immunization would have been advisable. Likewise, there was no yellow fever warnings for travel to Paraguay when I was making my plans to come here. Had I decided to go to the tropical Amazon in the wild Brazilian frontier a yellow fever vaccine would have been important, but here in the more civilized Asuncion it was never considered a necessity by me or the U.S. Department of State.

Now that’s all changed, though. I’ve been forwarded two emails from the American embassy saying it’s a good idea to get vaccinated, along with lists of all the places and times in the entire country offering vaccinations. The Paraguayan government, for its part, has done a very impressive job of responding to the health emergency, and already millions of vaccinations have been made available and administered. Nearly all my students along with their families have been vaccinated in just the few past days, and there’s even talk of a vaccination squad coming to Colegio Privado Adonai in the weeks ahead to immunize everyone else.

Some naysayers say that the yellow fever is just another example of a media hype and public frenzy, full of news and talk and gossip but devoid of any real threat to public health. Last year, for example, Dengue fever was all the rage (you can even read about it in Ellen’s blog), but already the public fear of that disease has completely passed. Supporting this point of view, too, is the claim that the men from San Pedro who contracted yellow fellow recently traveled the Brazilian interior where they ate infected monkey jungle meat. Basically, you might say, those guys deserved to get yellow fever.

Still, I’m not taking any chances. Pastor Pedro preached on Sunday that we all ought to take advantage of the free government immunizations, and I’m always one who’s inclined to listen to authority and be easily swept along with the currents of public opinion. Hence I went this morning with the two Caballero boys to get vaccinated at the health clinic in Lambare’.

Outside the clinic’s fences was a carnival-like atmosphere, with vendors selling food and people smiling all around. There were hundreds of people lined up in a regimental-style to confront just as many and similarly-arranged nurses battling to give the injections. We gave our own names and neighborhoods to some young men keeping the registers, and then proceeded to join in with the vaccinating throng. The wait wasn’t long, though, and within a minute or two we all three were holding our arms in after-injection pain.

I’m not sure how official or sanitary the improvised clinic was, but I was careful to watch my nurse take the cap of a new needle and then discard the syringe when she was done. It only took a little pinch and two minutes, and suddenly I was able to count myself as one of the millions recently safeguarded from the terrible wiles of yellow fever. For once, it seems as if the Paraguayan government has been effective, efficient, and especially helpful, even if it is only in giving a sense of security and peace of mind to so many citizens feverish with the fear of a certain yellow fever.