Dear Editor,

The first coming of CHIKV was devastating for me and my four elderly friends who suffered severely, and not in silence, for more than a year. Our unpatented concoction of guinea hen weed, chiney root, grated avocado seed, aralia stalk, cerasee, the exact two ounces of the wisdom leaves (approved by law), a pinch of salt, ginger to taste and a ‘tups’ of white rum was a saving grace. We all got better, but for the heavyset one, a former grand slam tennis player, who now walks with a cane on what looks like man-made ankles.

The same day the new, enthusiastic minister of health and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management alerted us of the coming — called Zika virus (ZIKV) — the warner woman reappeared on our avenue bearing bigger placards. Her signs used to say “The End Is Near”. But now she has changed her tune and they say “The End Is Here“. And even though we’re retired professionals — been there, done that, with expertise to boast — we are deeply concerned about this second coming of what appears to be a terrorist mosquito-controlled disease ZIKV.

Only Monday, early in the morning, we passed two gullies and saw black helicopters landing with the night’s body waste. Garbage and filth floated in them as the informal settlers on the banks still have no sanitary conveniences and seem not to be paying heed to the warnings regarding the second coming of a dread ZIKV.

Three of us plan to leave and live with children abroad, but two of us are last-in-line survivors about to enter the ‘twice a child’ stage. If this ZIKV attacks and shrinks the heads and brains of children, what will it do to us, the elderly, who are already beseiged by senile symptoms? Hope our ‘top-ramp’ designers will outfit us in specially created mosquito jumpsuits, reasonably priced.

And, in case our tried concoction does not work in the face of ZIKV, I wish to say thank you for tolerating me, and goodbye. It was nice knowing you.

Mills Blake

veronica_carnegie@cwjamaica.com