CHIKUNGUNYA Sweeping Through Haiti (WARNING: It’s coming to the U.S!!)

When Bill returned to Haiti after a spring visit home, he found the island in the beginning stages of another epidemic, Chikungunya!   This terrible virus is spread by mosquitos biting an infected person and then biting someone else.

A small portion of the medicine collected by Anderson’s.

There is no vaccine and all you can do if you get it is treat the systems. Bill called just after he arrived, asking for acetaminophen for the pain and antihistamines for the rashes. It had disappeared off the shelves in Haiti. Clinics were out. Four pills of pain reliever were selling on the street for $1. We put out the call as Jesse and Cody were flying to Haiti within a week to help Bill. Even on such short notice, we were amazed at the response.

Billy Garrigan at Anderson’s Ice Cream put out the word and customers and friends donated medicine and funds to buy more. Sid Davis contacted the Rotarians who did likewise. Len Clevenger contacted the Joplin Community Clinic who ordered in some medicine. Dr. Christopher Roberts and a few other individuals also gave medicine. By the time the guys left, JUST MERCY had a big suitcase of badly needed medication for Haiti!! We are so grateful!!

We wanted to be able to help in the mountains where the schools we support are and also at the island base.  Both places desperately needed help so upon the team’s arrival at the airport in Port au Prince, Bill met them with Dr. Jolius Thelusme, our doctor friend from the mountains of Pays-Pourri. We gave him a bucket of medicine  to take back to the mountain people to help them.  Bill and the guys continued on to Ile a Vache with the rest of the medication.

Jesse and Cody headed out with medicine in their packs

They found many people coming down with the virus. There is only one small clinic on Ile a Vache, an island several miles long. Little medicine is available and most cannot afford it if it is. Jesse and Cody strapped on backpacks full of medicine and hiked miles around the island, finding sick people and sharing the donated medicines with them.

Back at Kakok, the village where the base is, people came for medicine, sometimes 60-70 a day!! Because of the people of Joplin’s generosity, JUST MERCY has had plenty to share in the name of Jesus.

Bill giving a girl medicine for Chikungunya

Within about two weeks of their arrival, all three members of the team came down with Chikungunya, despite wearing insect repellant and trying to avoid mosquitoes. Bill wrote about getting it.

“The virus begins to manifest symptoms 1 or 2 days after being bitten by a mosquito carrying the disease. You begin to feel aching in your joints and bones. A few hours later the fever starts. You get really hot, then chilled, kind of like a bad flu without the stomach problems. After 12 hours or so the pain leaves you barely able to stand. You break out in an itchy rash.

 You know how a sprained ankle feels? Chikungunya is like that all over.  I know because I speak from experience. Of course, it affects different people to varying degrees.  Chikungunya!  I have been sick with it for two days now. Several more to go.”

Cody giving medicine to a woman at her home.

People traveling to the Caribbean are coming home to the US, carrying the virus.  There have been confirmed cases in FL.  By the time you receive this, Bill and friends should be about over it. Please pray that none of them have the residual pain that sometimes lasts for months or even years.   People continue to come for help. We have been able to bless hundreds of people in the past few weeks with pain relief.

Pray for the people of Haiti, many who have no access to medicine. We are so grateful for friends and supporters who enable us to work in Haiti and be there when emergencies strike and we are able to care for people in the name of Jesus. If you can help us continue doing so, please donate at www.justmercy.org. May God bless you all!