s/o Zika virus (and other mosquito-transmitted viruses)

[StaceyinLA]

Are you worried enough about contracting one of these viruses to use mosquito sprays all the time? I am just always concerned that people are overloading on bug sprays that are likely carcinogenic to protect themselves against viruses that they have a minuscule risk of catching.

 

I live in south Louisiana and we get the warnings every year about West Nile and other such illnesses spread by mosquitos. Mosquito bites are certainly unpleasant, but I just can't see myself dousing in chemicals daily to protect myself from something I'm highly unlikely to catch. (Of course, I also will not douse myself in carcinogenic sunscreen to protect myself against skin cancer.)

 

I understand the Zika risks for pregnant women and certainly if I was pregnant the benefit would probably outweigh the risk, but does anyone else feel like this stuff is a little fear-mongering? I mean it seems like every year it's something else threatening us all to certain doom.

[prairiewindmomma]

On this one, I don't think it's fear-mongering.  I live in an area with a high risk of Zika--the billboards along the highway in my town include ones about Zika.  I took some college coursework on the history of virology. Any novel virus is more virulent in its initial wave. If you look at areas where Zika has "burned over", subsequent Zika infections tend to have fewer complications.  Look at Africa, where Zika is endemic--you don't hear the scary stories that are coming out of Brazil, etc.  Being vigilant now during this initial wave is important. As someone with an autoimmune disease, I am at a higher risk of complications.

 

If you look at the latest studies, Cutter's lemon eucalyptus spray was actually more effective than 40% DEET.  Lemon eucalyptus is a reasonable alternative that is less toxic than DEET or picaridin. 

 

What's your analysis for not wearing something like non-nano zinc oxide as a sunscreen? I wear zinc oxide embedded uv-resistant long-sleeved clothing and a hat in the summer, but I totally wear something directly on my face. 

[Carrie12345]

We've moved over to heavy duty bug stuff after putting 2 kids through Lyme treatment, so we get the secondary benefit of avoiding mosquitoes.

[3 ladybugs]

To me it is proof that we just need to get rid of the little insects once and for all! I am not putting bug repellant on my sons more this year then years prior. For me the chemicals are not worth it at this point. If the situation changes I might as well. 

[StaceyinLA]

On this one, I don't think it's fear-mongering. I live in an area with a high risk of Zika--the billboards along the highway in my town include ones about Zika. I took some college coursework on the history of virology. Any novel virus is more virulent in its initial wave. If you look at areas where Zika has "burned over", subsequent Zika infections tend to have fewer complications. Look at Africa, where Zika is endemic--you don't hear the scary stories that are coming out of Brazil, etc. Being vigilant now during this initial wave is important. As someone with an autoimmune disease, I am at a higher risk of complications.

 

If you look at the latest studies, Cutter's lemon eucalyptus spray was actually more effective than 40% DEET. Lemon eucalyptus is a reasonable alternative that is less toxic than DEET or picaridin.

 

What's your analysis for not wearing something like non-nano zinc oxide as a sunscreen? I wear zinc oxide embedded uv-resistant long-sleeved clothing and a hat in the summer, but I totally wear something directly on my face.

Well I guess I'm just thinking of it in the sense of other viruses like West Nile that really never seemed to do what they warned it would, but perhaps I need to do a bit more reading on this particular virus.

 

Certainly if people are using repellents that don't have the toxicity, the benefits would certainly outweigh any risks.

 

For me and sunscreen, I do use a natural one when I am going to have long-term exposure, but I will never be one to put on sunscreen every time I'm in the sun; I think the issue with so many people having low Vitamin D is due to overuse of sunscreen. Having low vitamin D brings its own set of issues.

Edited June 6, 2016 by StaceyinLA

[bibiche]

Well, we had a healthy, very athletic 60 year old friend who died after contracting West Nile, so If what "they warned" it would do is kill people, they were right.

 

Our family spends time in malarial zones and we find lemon eucalyptus more effective than anything else, including DEET. We also make sure we are covered as much as possible. Sometimes bites are unavoidable but we try our best to minimize them. When in the US we avoid going out at dusk when the mosquitos are more active, and we make sure not to have standing water around.

 

There are common sense things you can do. IMO, avoiding all mosquito repellant isn't one of them any more than avoiding ever leaving the house is.

[prairiewindmomma]

If you care about such things, here's some reading on DEET resistance Aedes Aegypti: 

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100503/full/news.2010.216.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-21519998

 

The thing that drives me bonkers about A. Aegypti is that the darn little buggers swarm around our doors and love to come inside.  My kids are slow to close the dang door and now I have them buzzing about in my house. I picked up three bites last night on my arms and one on my hip.  I seriously contemplating buying a mosquito net for over my bed if Zika comes over the border. Right now, the cases in my city are from people who have traveled abroad.  We've had a wet spring here in Texas, though, so I'm trying to balance whether to keep my kids primarily indoor and wax war on the mosquitos already inside or whether to douse my kids in bug spray.  So far, the bug spray argument is winning. 

[Loowit]

We avoid mosquitoes as much as possible, but we still need to get out in the world.  I am not worried much about diseases that are spread by the little blood suckers in my area, but my youngest has horrible reactions to mosquito bites.  He gets huge welts that turn black and blue.  And by huge I mean sometimes one bite's welt will cover his whole thigh or upper arm.  The welts also get painful for him, so we do use repellent especially for him.  I weighed the risk vs benefit and decided it was worth it to use insect repellent. We don't need to use it all that often.  We don't have many mosquitoes around our house because the area is well sprayed, but my parents house is not and they live get quite a few mosquitoes coming out at night.  Also, the boys do backpacking and camp in the summers where there can be large numbers of mosquitoes.

[FaithManor]

For us, it isn't even about mosquitoes though we do think about it. It's ticks. Dh contracted Lyme's disease but thankfully received prompt treatment and has suffered no long term side effects. However, despite our luck, it left us pretty darn wary and bug spray is used often here. That said, we minimize the amount of exposure by making sure that when hiking and such we wear long sleeves, hats, long pants, long socks, and rubber band our pant legs over our hiking boots to prevent the rotten buggers from going up a pant leg. We then spray a wipe, and wipe our faces, necks, etc. to minimize inhalation.

 

Even you if you use a lemon and eucalyptus spray, the stuff is not good for your lungs. Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean you should breathe it either. So I recommend either spraying it on your hand and wiping around exposed areas or doing the wipe thing.

[ktgrok]

 

Even you if you use a lemon and eucalyptus spray, the stuff is not good for your lungs. Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean you should breathe it either. So I recommend either spraying it on your hand and wiping around exposed areas or doing the wipe thing.

 

It can also be a skin irritant. It bothers some of my family members, and DEET doesn't. Picaridin makes my husband tingle, which is weird. We use a variety of things. DEET issues are mostly when applied frequently and long term, so we mix it up. 

 

Also, fyi, mosquitoes WILL bite through clothing around here. 

[StaceyinLA]

Well, we had a healthy, very athletic 60 year old friend who died after contracting West Nile, so If what "they warned" it would do is kill people, they were right.

 

Our family spends time in malarial zones and we find lemon eucalyptus more effective than anything else, including DEET. We also make sure we are covered as much as possible. Sometimes bites are unavoidable but we try our best to minimize them. When in the US we avoid going out at dusk when the mosquitos are more active, and we make sure not to have standing water around.

 

There are common sense things you can do. IMO, avoiding all mosquito repellant isn't one of them any more than avoiding ever leaving the house is.

I realize that people can, and do, die from it, and I'm very sorry for your loss. What I mean by what "they warned," is that the news media/CDC/powers that be made it seem far worse than it is, and like it would affect far more people. I realize if you die from it, you have certainly had the worst possible outcome, but there just aren't very many deaths from it; you are much more likely to die from the regular flu.

 

We certainly have our fair share of mosquitos, so I do my best to avoid getting bites, but I guess what I wonder is whether increasing my cancer risk by using toxic chemicals on my skin (because if I used them here every time I was at risk of getting bitten, that would be most days of the week and many months of the year) is worth protection from the small chance I'd be infected with something by a mosquito.

[StephanieZ]

If I lived where Zika is an issue, I'd be really vigilant about minimizing exposure. Our family just returned from Costa Rica, and we spent 6 days in the area there where Zika is indeed endemic, and I was as aggressive about avoiding exposure as possible, even though none of our family is currently (or in the near future) potentially pregnant or getting pregnant. 

 

We used permethrin spray on one set of outerwear for each family member (long pants, hats, long sleeve shirts). You apply it and then it lasts for 6 washes. We did that at home, so we had a set of clothes for everyone. We had 40% DEET, lemon-eucalyptus and picaradin bug sprays/lotions. The picaradin was new for us, and it was the least smelly to use, FWIW. The one we got was a lotion, and it was quite tolerable -- less greasy than sunscreen. We applied and reapplied frequently. I treated it just like I do heavy sunscreen use -- use as needed and then wash thoroughly at bed time. 

 

Be aware that apparently Zika can be transmitted through sperm, and they don't yet know how long it lasts in the male and can be transmitted. So, I was particularly concerned about my teen son, since he's the only one who could transmit Zika later . . . if it lasts a long time in his body . . . 

 

I sure hope there is a vaccine before my children become pregnant . . . Zia scares the crap out of me, and I am not terribly easy to scare by these sorts of things. (I did a LOT of googling before our trip.)

 

If Zika isn't figured out before my kids enter their child-bearing years, I'm sure I'll be terrified. 

 

FWIW, Costa Rica is SUPER dependent on and invested in tourism, and I am certain they are doing everything they can to battle Zika and those nasty little skeeters that transmit it, but nonetheless, in the super-famous surf province where we visited (and where Zika had had 42 cases in recent months in that one province), we still saw plenty of those very skeeters that transmit it. (You can ID them based on their markings . . . I swatted at least a couple on myself, although I never noticed any bites.) So, I don't think it's easy to manage the bugs themselves. It is was, I'm pretty confident they'd have already done it, especially given that there are other very serious viruses (Dengue and some other long hard to spell one) there that are also transmitted by mosquitoes. 

 

Here's hoping for a vaccine and/or effective treatment ASAP. I sure hope our representative in Washington get their act together and fund research and treatment right now, before the US greets a generation of injured babies.