"Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my!"
The Wizard of Oz
Our world cruise itinerary will feature safaris to see lions (we hope!), as well as the rest of the Big Five (leopards, elephants, rhinos, and African buffalo). We'll also be visiting the Great Barrier Reef and may sight a shark or two from the safety of our catamaran. And we're stopping in Komodo to see the dragons, the world's largest lizards in the wild.
But none of these are the most dangerous animals on the planet.
It's the mosquito.
The CDC estimates over 700,000 people die each year of disease transmitted by mosquito bites. Sadly, we are sailing into some areas where malaria and yellow fever are endemic.
The good news is that there is an effective vaccine for Yellow Fever. The bad news is, it's a live vaccine so as someone with a suppressed immune system, I can't take it. The shot would likely give me the disease. It's also not recommended for people with severe allergies, neurological conditions or are over 60 years of age.
The only country we are visiting which requires a yellow fever vaccine is Angola, and we don't plan to leave the ship for that port. But to fulfill all righteousness, we had an appointment at a Passport Health office last month--5 hours from our hometown!--to get a Yellow Card indicating we both have medical waivers for the YF vaccine. It should mean we'll have no trouble boarding the Sky in LA next January.
However, waving a yellow piece of paper at a swarm of mosquitos won't protect us, and there are no vaccines available for malaria, dengue, zika, west Nile, and chikungunya. So we plan to take preventative action. Starting two days prior to arriving in Komodo, we will begin taking doxycycline as an anti-malarial prophylaxis and continue until we get back home to the US. We'll also take care to prevent bites. We'll use Ben's 30% Deet Tick and Insect wipes, wear long sleeved shirts, long pants and closed-toe shoes when we're out and about in "Moquito Central." We've also bought some netting headgear to protect our heads and necks when we're tramping through the rainforest of Madagascar looking for lemurs.
One of my favorite college professors, Dr. Barclay, used to tell us, "Europe will always be there. Go to the wild, to the places in this world that won't always be there."
Personally, I've loved every minute we've spent in Europe. And it could be argued that Europe may not always be there. Anyone else remember weeping as Notre Dame burned?
But Dr. Barclay was right. Stretching ourselves to visit parts of the world that are very different from our home is good for our souls. Getting out of our comfort zone is the heart of any adventure.
Any time the preparations and preventatives start to sound overwhelming, I remind myself how blessed we are be able to explore these rapidly dwindling wild places.
