Stealing the limelight

Take the case of Zika, the mosquito- borne disease that spread rapidly last year through Brazil and made its way around the region. Once the images of the small-headed (microcephaly), affected babies hit the newspaper front pages and TV news headlines in the USA there was a demand for something to be done to curb its spread. There is a rule when deciding the media news agenda. It dictates that the nearer to home, the higher up the agenda, regardless of the essential importance of the story.

That means 500 people dying in a tsunami on the other side of the world is less important news than a local bigwig being arrested for some reason. The faraway, heavyweight issue only rises to item one on the agenda if local people are affected or involved. And, the pictures matter.

Often, no picture means no story, or poor pictures could push an important news item down the agenda, which is one reason why radio remains such a ubiquitous and popular medium. It is also why Zika has overshadowed other diseases, with a vaccine soon to be ready.

I have a bee in my bonnet about the dreaded Chikungunya virus, which has left a trail of permanent disaster in over 60 countries and is far more debilitating than it is given credit for. I see from a WHO report that its prevalence has been declining, which is probably why no vaccine has been developed, but it is a fact that the countries that control the research purse were never sufficiently affected by the disease although we do know that Chik-V can cause eye, neurological and heart complications, as well as gastrointestinal complaints. Quite apart from the joint pain that can be acutely debilitating and also prolonged, in some older people it certainly can change the course of their lives by triggering chronic arthritic and other conditions that weaken them, even causing death. It does not help that symptoms of the infection may go unrecognized, or be misdiagnosed in areas where the even more deadly dengue occurs.

Dengue and malaria are very serious, far-reaching diseases but Zika has knocked them down the importance list, as a Google Trends analysis proves. Interest in Zika is out of proportion to its real impact argues the Break Dengue organisation. When, last February, the WHO declared Zika a public health emergency and the White House put$1.9billion behind Zika’s prevention, detection and response, it deterred money away from dengue and malaria research and treatment.

The figures are stark: Between 2006-2016 there have been 390 million estimated dengue cases globally, and 214 million malaria cases in 2015 alone, compared to 467,000 estimated Zika cases in the Americas between 2015-16. Yellow fever affects an estimated 200,000 people per year globally. According to Break Dengue, dengue, spread by the same mosquito that carries Zika and Chik-V, is the fastest-growing mosquito-borne viral infection in the world now, causing 22,000 deaths a year. Yet, it is still often undiagnosed.

I feel quite vulnerable when I see the effect of all these mosquitoborne diseases upon us here and the amount of public health resources they have absorbed, for little reward.

It i s a curious phenomenon that while human beings, certainly in this region, face fewer conventional predators, the tiny mosquito can take us down. We cannot afford to take our eyes off the ball for one moment.