My doctor looked over my red-speckled face and arms with a concerned look. She tossed open the door of the examination room and shouted to her assistant: “What do we need to do to test for Zika?”
The thick jungle, where disease-carrying mosquitoes like to hang out
I knew that the Zika virus existed in Central America, where I had just spent the last three weeks traveling. With images of tiny-headed babies plastered across the media, it was hard not to know about Zika. But I was far from planning a pregnancy, and I’d read that most people don’t even show symptoms when they contract the disease. I figured I was fine. Plus, I was bringing plenty of 99% DEET bugspray. There was nothing to worry about.
About halfway through my trip, I was sitting in a lounge chair near my hostel pool in El Tunco, El Salvador. The itchiness of my legs was driving me crazy. I was doing everything I could not to scratch them open. I looked down at my legs and counted the bites.
Thirty-seven.
Thirty-seven mosquito bites, just on my legs. I remember examining them, each one framed by a swollen red circle, and thinking with this many bites…I’m sure I’ve contracted something by now.
Whyyyy am I so delicious?!
By the end of my trip, my body’s immune system was shot. Between early mornings, frequent elevation changes, crappy dorm beds, an inconsistent diet, and constant moving from place to place, I officially had a head cold. My last day in Central America was spent holed up in my hostel room with my Kindle, and a bottle of fruit juice I forced down my raw and aching throat.
These guys kept me company while I stayed in my room
When my plane touched down back home in Michigan, my head felt like it was 100 pounds, I had had my second ever nose-bleed, and my ears wouldn’t repressurize.
Five days later, when my blood test came back with a positive result, I was already 100% convinced I’d contracted the Zika Virus. Over the next week, my symptoms came in phases..
Phase 1: Fever
I spent the next few days after coming home on the couch with an ice pack plastered to my forehead. I didn’t have much energy to do more than lay and watch tv. After about 2 days of lazing around nursing my fever, I began to feel more like myself.
Phase 2: Rash
I awoke about two days later and looked into the mirror to find that I was entirely covered in small red splotches. They made my skin warm to the touch, and were slightly itchy. I found that if my body temperature was normal, they were a light red color. But if I was hot, especially after showering, my skin would turn a firey red. Other than that, I could function as normal.
Phase 3: Joint Pain
I had a solid 24 hours between phases 2 and 3 where I completely symptom-free. I was beginning to believe that I was done dealing with the Zika virus. Wrong. That next morning, I woke up with pain in my right foot, which slowly spread to my ankle and knee. By the end of that day, both my legs felt rigid with sharp pain that left me hobbling around my house like an old person. After about two more days, I was back to normal with no symptoms.
Tylenol was my best friend for a few days
It turns out it’s not hard to get Zika virus, as the mosquitoes in Central America don’t give a damn about your DEET spray. While it wasn’t necessarily fun to have Zika virus, it did teach me something.
There are so many people right now who have cancelled their travel plans due to Zika. I was fully aware of the Zika virus being in Central America prior to my trip, and still decided to go.
I can’t even believe how many amazing things I would have missed out on, had I cancelled the trip due to some nasty mosquitoes. I would have never looked out over the terra cotta rooftops of Antigua. I would have never climbed to the top of an ancient Mayan pyramid in Honduras. I would have never sucked down a fresh, tropical fruit smoothie on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in El Salvador.
Looking back on my three-week trip in Central America, there is not a single thing I experienced that was not worth a week of itchy face and achey legs. And on the plus side, now that I’ve had Zika, I can never get it again!
Bring it on, skeeters….
No matter where you travel, you will always be taking some kind of risk. But in the end, the amazing things the world presents to you will always be worth it.
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46 Comments
I love your positive outlook in this post. Sure bad shit happens all the time when we’re traveling but that doesn’t outweigh the experiences and perspective-broadening that travel brings. It’s also great that you bring up that while Zika sucks, it’s not usually life-threatening unless you’re pregnant or planning on getting pregnant. Thanks for keeping it real.
We learned in Brazil that the mosquitoes, which spread Zika, are active in the daytime. That’s the most difficult time to cover up with bite proof clothing… The best prevention I know of: pick a season to travel when mosquitoes aren’t very active, like the middle of “winter” (I write this in quotation marks because the tropics have no ‘real’ winter, just a cooler time of year). Avoid the rain season or the month after – when mosquitoes are most prevalent.
Great suggestions for avoiding mosquitoes! I’ve also heard that treating your clothes with spray can help. Or they make clothing now with repellent in the fabric!
Great suggestions for avoiding mosquitoes! I’ve also heard that treating your clothes with spray can help. Or they make clothing now with repellent in the fabric!
haha, love the bring it on skeeters! I know about the Zika virus from news and what not, but had not paid much attention to the symptoms! Yikes, poor you! However, I love to see that this has not phased you or prevented you from enjoying your holiday!
Holy crap, I can’t believe this. I’m so glad you are ok, even though you’ve basically shaken me to my core about going to Central America for a while. UGH. So glad you are OK! Brave woman you.
That sounds awful. Hope you are OK now and hopefully it won’t stop you going back to Central America.
It really wasn’t that bad, and I certainly have no problem going back to Central America!
Wow! I love this so much, living the best life you can should always come before blind fear!
Really interesting too, who knew zika could give you foot pain!
Haha I know right? Joint pain seems so random 😛
Gosh that virus doesn’t sound like much fun at all, but I love your outlook. You got to see such amazing things and have experiences that you wouldn’t have had otherwise!
Poor thing, I hope you recovered meantime and this incident won’t stop you to visit Central America again. Take care!
I’m glad you’re OK – and totally agree with not cancelling your trip in the face of the virus. We see and experience so many amazing things when out there in the world, and our bodies are pretty well built to stand up to most things. 37 bites tho, eesh – I think I would have scratched my legs clean off!
Never seen a blog post like this before–not just first-person but oh so timely as well. In a period when people are scared of something they don’t understands, we need more testimony of what’s going on.
And you are fine now! I love your message and perspective on travel. I would advise everyone the same. Right now I’m traveling in Central America for 2 months in a rainy season..and got few regular mosquito bites. I have many more months ahead where zika virus is and look forward to what’s ahead (sometimes traveler’s diarrhoea is even worse than zika ?)
Amen to that!! Especially in Central America…
It’s useful post to understand how it works, like there are many articles about how dangerous it is, what happening in the world by numbering deaths and etc. but no real experience!
That’s the worst kind of thing to have deal with during holidays. I can imagine how difficult it gets to cancel plans we have been making for long time at the end – thinking nothing’s going to happen. But may be it was destined to happen. Anyway, stay safe and happy travels in future.
Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry this happened to you. Does the virus go away? Is it life-threatening? I only see the crazy scares they put into the media…but I’m not sure how bad it really is. It’s worse for people who are pregnant, right? I wanted to travel to South America sometime but the Zika virus has me scared…
Doctors say that the virus stays active in you for about 6 weeks. After that, all you have left is an immunity to the disease. I don’t think it’s life-threatening. But can be worse if you are pregnant because it’s been linked with microcephaly in developing fetuses. I say, if you’re not looking to get prego anytime soon, you are fine to go to South America. Only 1 in 5 people who contract the disease actually show symptoms anyways…
Mosquito-borne illnesses are scary. I’ve had malaria, and I’m done with having kids, so Zika, while scary, isn’t the end of the world for me like it would be for some travelers. It sounds like you were smart. You took it easy, sought treatment, and now you’re doing well.
Good for you for not letting fear get in the way of an amazing trip!
Wow! I hung on your every word and read it out my husband saying OMG! OMGGGG quite a lot, this was fascinating! I love how you turned the negative into a positive and I do agree with you in that I would have still have travelled there regardless of any warnings as you never know what you will miss out on; for example we chose to visit Mabul, Borneo even though pirates had raided there a few months before and our government warned us not to go … we never felt so safe and are returning for the 3rd time. I believe that sometimes these chances are worth taking, it’s what makes us travellers 🙂 Glad you are better now though and I’m sorry you had to go through this x
Pirates?! That’s pretty badass… I’d probably go too just because it would make a pretty sweet story 😛
Aww! Getting sick on vacation is the worst thing to happen. Many times, one can take precautions and avoid some of these untoward incidents, but at other times, one is taken complete’y off-guard. Made a mental note…
Super interesting- really great to read a first hand account of what it is like! My husband & I are currently living in Fiji which is a zika country. I guess we just have be careful about avoiding pregnancy and for a couple of months after our eventual return home. Heading into the rainy season shortly so I think that will be the worst part for the mozzies & potential zika infection. Good to know that you can never get it again! I do hope they come up with a vaccine or something though…
You are so brave! I love how through all that you’ve gone through (and are going through), you’re still looking at the best of everything and have such optimism. That kind of spirit is so contagious, I loved reading this post. I hope you feel better. 🙂
This is a really eye-opening article. I have a trip planned for December to Ecuador and it’s a zika area too. But am I going to cancel? No way.
That’s the spirit!
That’s the spirit!
Thanks for sharing this. I feel like the media has shoved down our throats that it isn’t safe to travel. For a lot of us who don’t want kids or don’t plan to have any in the coming couple of years, we can handle this and shouldn’t change plans. Life keeps moving, and so should we.
I need to share this article with everyone who has ever tried to discourage me from traveling to a Zika endemic country. I’m glad you survived Zika and still look back at your trip with positivity. I didn’t know that getting Zika once would make you immune for life!
I’m glad you’re okay now. I definitely love the positive outlook. That’s the secret to enjoying life. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” So they say.
Zika virus is something that anyone doesn’t want to aquire. I like how positive you are and you optimism vibrates over this post. This is my first time to read about Zika experience by first hand and Im glad you’re fine. Take care!
I didn’t realize that Zika had all those symptoms. Sounds miserable. I’m older and not planning on having children, so going there would be okay. But if I was planning on having children, I’d wait to visit those areas until afterward as most of those places will still be there.
Wow!!! Thanks for sharing this post. Never heard of anyone that actually had it!!
So glad you’re OK, I’d always heard that the Zika virus rarely exhibits any symptoms in adults. Guess it does, sounds pretty nasty at that. I would totally risk contracting Zika (in a non-pregnant state) for the incredible experiences you had in South America.
TAKE NOTE : Immunity to repeat Zika infection will not be conferred if the Zika+ virus changes/mutates further. Like Dengue 1,2,3,4.
Read this paper about Dengue. (And BTW, there are now 5 identified Dengue strains !)
http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/86/20130414
Thus certain “experts” who are promoting the “Let everyone get infected” plan are playing a very dangerous game. Depopulation agenda?
Here’s a crazy and dangerous story in the Immunity / Zika vein…
“Americans are immune to Zika !”
http://www.snopes.com/americans-immune-zika-virus/
Perhaps you ready my article incorrectly. I’m simply sharing my experience with contracting the disease and saying that it shouldn’t scare people into not traveling.
Omg! I can’t believe you got Zika. Glad to hear it all turned out okay though. It seems like it definitely sucked, but not worth the massive panic attacks that people are having about it in the news. Thanks for putting this out there and reminding people that there is not as much to fear as the media would lead us to believe.
[…] to struggle with this goal. Last year, I came home from Central America with Zika virus. I managed to completely lose my voice for a whole week in Australia. And I won’t even go […]
Thank you for sharing your expereince, Brianna. I wish I’d read this post before going to South America last year. I guess I would have freaked out a little less over every mosquito bite I got. From what the media kept showing, I was sure getting Zika would have been the end of me. Although your symptoms sound quite horrible, I’m glad you’re ok again now and most of all: hats off for not cancelling your trip out of fear of getting the virus. I absolutely agree that missing all those experiences would have been a lot worse than dealing with a week of pain. I guess if you love travelling as much as you and I do, those bad things start to fade when you think of the amazing you had.
Thanks for reading, Seraina! I hope you enjoyed your time in South America, even though the mosquitos freaked you out!
Your story is great, as long as you took every care to NOT get bitten by local mosquitos back in the US. As a pregnant woman living in the US, I get concerned by people traveling to other countries and bringing the virus. Sure, it’s great fun for non-pregnant people to travel to these countries. But please, please be sure not to transmit the disease to local population of mosquitos. There are pregnant couples in the US who really could live without the added risks posed by unsuspecting, carefree non-pregnant travelers.
Good point. However, the mosquitos in Michigan, where I live, are a different type of mosquito and they are unable to carry the virus. Getting bit here would not transmit the virus to other people.
Ah Zika. It really did scare a lot of people. We lived in Martinique (Southern Caribbean) for a year and I ended up getting it the last month I was there. I felt like I’d been hit by a bus for several days. I can’t remember ever being that sick. However, it went away and I’m fine. Also, I wasn’t pregnant. Several of my friends there have had it too. I think when you live around it, you don’t worry so much. I’m so glad you’re okay now.
Glad you’re okay! Did you have similar symptoms as I did?