Osprey - 11-19-2007 at 07:59 AM
Breakbone
“I can see the huachinango, the big red fish blazing like a fire, like the sun at midday; it hurts my eyes to look at them but I must keep fishing,
get as many in the boat as I can before the tribunada, the storm hits full force. Luis, Rigoberto and Juan Carlos are pulling iron, they will run for
it now. It looks bad, very bad, black as night the sky. I don’t want to stop but my little boat is taking on water and I can’t stand up to fish.”
“I am saved. A big pod of delphines, dolphins is picking up my boat – they are beautiful beyond my words. Flying now, the boat is flying above the
waves on the backs of the blue beasts. They set me down in the soft sand, high above the last wave, close to Adolfo’s truck, his scales, the money.
I must have broken my elbows because the pain is great – I don’t care, mis compadres are there, amazed at my big catch, wishing they had some of
Adolpho’s money. I will send for beer to celebrate. Bring me some beer for my friends.”
Pablo is soaking wet. He takes a sip of the beer and spits it out.
“What is this? This is not beer.”
Now he finds himself surrounded by ghosts; all in white, moving silently around him where he lies on the beach. The beach is littered with bodies.
The ghosts move among them pouring the tasteless liquid into their mouths. He thinks now he has many broken bones. Maybe one of the ghosts will take
the fish money to Carmelita, to the house.
Every deep cut in his hands now burns with the caustic damage of the bait, the squid guts, that slopped into his long rubber gloves. Pablo has never
had a fever this high, this dangerous.
He is not on the beach. He shares a hospital ward with many other patients who are likewise delusional, have the high fever. Some of them share his
other long-time ailment, diabetes, which now threatens his very life but they all have one of the four vectors of Dengue Fever, also known as
Breakbone Fever.
Seven days ago two young women Carmelita had never encountered in San Isabel came to the gate, gave her packets of insecticide for her pila, her water
tank, to kill mosquitoes and their eggs. The Aedes aegypti female mosquito needs little water in which to lay her eggs and during this last storm,
just eight days ago, almost five inches of rain ran down the village streets and turned vados and bajadas into temporary virus incubators.
As the most serious cases of the hemorrhagic vector patients checked in to the big hospital in La Paz, families were called to come get those who
might be at little risk of other illnesses at home, give up their beds for others; after this big storm, almost 800 people were displaced from
hospitals in La Paz by way of triage.
When and if those in the ward became able to move about, were deemed “out of trouble” they were sent home to recuperate there. As they moved about
their villages they transmitted the still virile virus to any active female aegypti which passed it on to humans directly or later through her own
eggs.
Pablo’s recovery will be slow because of his blood. He will fish again but he will never be the robust and ready man he was before the storm, the
little bug. At the house Carmelita has a box of papers from DIF, the social services people, about diabetes, others from the health department about
Dengue and Malaria, what can be done to keep them from taking your strength, your life. Sometimes the children read a few of the papers. Carmelita
smiles as she sees them form the words from the letters – little lips moving, pursing, soft, pink, like the rose petals in the garden, so soft.
How many bugs? How many fevers?
This year two of five people on planet Earth are at risk of contracting Dengue Fever.
Iflyfish - 11-19-2007 at 08:44 AM
Nasty, nasty bug. Hope one day there is a cure. Till then it's dump the standing water........and hope.
Iflyfish
amir - 11-19-2007 at 10:56 PM
Staying healthy with a strong immune system is a good start in prevention. Keep your nerves free and spine aligned for maximum energy flow through
your body. Eliminate breeding grounds for the mosquitoes. Dengue is not always fatal. There are worse epidemics.
Recently there was a case of Typhoid Fever in Pescadero. It comes from tainted food or water, with an incubation period of 3 to 14 days. Who remembers
what and where you ate 2 weeks ago?
Just like WE like the tropics, so do some other pathogens. Be informed!
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Sallysouth - 11-19-2007 at 11:42 PM
Another mind blower from the Seahawk.Beautifully written !
[Edited on 11-20-2007 by Sallysouth]