More than one year after the Zika virus broke out in Brazil, the University of Maryland is still trying to get the message out to students.
University Health Center Director David McBride sent an email to the university community on Sept. 7.
“I deleted the email without reading it,” junior physiology and neurobiology major Mitchell Rock said. Rock is not concerned with Zika and does not see the virus as a threat, he said.
While McBride’s email did not report any cases of Zika at this university, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there were 95 cases in the state of Maryland as of Sept. 14. In all of these cases the infected patients contracted the virus outside the state.
“Though there have been no locally transmitted Zika infections reported in Maryland to date, this may happen with the coming of warmer weather and the breeding of mosquitoes,” the email stated.
In order to lessen the threat of Zika, the university has attempted to eliminate areas with standing water, as well as treat or inspect other areas that allow mosquitoes to reproduce, according to McBride’s email.
“People are blowing this out of proportion,” Rock said. “I am going to change absolutely nothing in my life based on Zika.”
Many people who contract Zika only experience mild symptoms for less than one week, and it is very rare for people to die of Zika, according to the CDC.
McBride did not respond to requests for comment.
“The concern with standing water is the types of mosquitoes that spread Zika virus [and the fact that] they can reproduce in small amounts of water,” said Benjamin Haynes, the CDC’s public information officer.
The aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the Zika virus, can reproduce in pools of water as small as a capful, Haynes said.
Zika is mostly transmitted through a bite from an aedes aegypti mosquito, but can be transmitted from person to person through intercourse or from an infected pregnant woman to her fetus, according to the email.
The email also included that “there is currently no vaccine against Zika,” but the University of Maryland School of Medicine has begun conducting clinical trials of a vaccine, according to an ABC2 article.
Though a legitimate medical threat, some students believe Zika should not be getting this much media coverage.
“I don’t want to undermine its importance,” senior physiology and neurobiology major Tiffany Hu said. “But at the same time, there’s a lot of other mosquito-borne diseases that are being overlooked.”
