An Urgent Bulletin From Julia

Editor’s Note: As many of you know, The Oxford Club takes its philanthropy efforts very seriously. Beyond building wealth, we feel it’s important to spread wealth too.

That’s exactly why CEO and Executive Director Julia Guth started the Roberto Clemente Health Clinic in Nicaragua in 2003.

During this season of giving, we’re doing something a little different to spread awareness… we’re sharing with our Members an urgent bulletin from Julia concerning the Clinic and its efforts to contain the Zika virus.

To learn more about the Clinic, read the article below or click here now.

– Rachel Gearhart, Managing Editor

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From the Baltimore Clubhouse – My eyes teared up as I put together this alarming research.

I have three children, plus several nieces and nephews – all in their 20s. These kids face a rapidly increasing threat to their freedom and well-being. This is a threat unlike any we’ve ever known – and it’s certainly not one I’ve ever had to face before.

I’m not sending you this to scare or depress you. I want to increase awareness of this growing threat. I’m hoping that after you learn about this, you’ll see we have no choice but to take action right now. Even taking very simple measures can result in a much more positive outcome for you, your family, your neighborhood and our world.

By being proactive, we can battle the enemy causing so much alarm. This enemy is not terrorism. It’s a seemingly innocent creature… yet it’s the most deadly animal known to mankind. I’m talking about the mosquito. Mosquitoes kill more than 1 million people each year, and they cause sickness and suffering for millions more.

I’m sensitive to global epidemics spread by mosquitoes. A revered great-great-uncle of mine died young as a result of yellow fever… before anyone knew yellow fever and cholera were actually viruses spread by mosquitoes. People used to think they were caused by something in the air, like a gas.

I’m also the Chair of a nonprofit health center located in a poor but beautiful part of coastal Central America. For years, we’ve helped surrounding communities battle dengue fever and the chikungunya virus. So when news of yet another mosquito virus hit, I was crushed. I knew we had more work cut out for us.

Yellow fever is actually still a threat today. But this Zika virus… it’s even worse. That’s because Zika is unlike anything scientists have seen before. We now know that not only can it be transmitted by mosquitoes, but it can also be transmitted sexually. This is unprecedented. Even if we killed all the mosquitoes in the world, this virus could still continue to spread.

I first read about Zika last January. I found it buried in a short newspaper article. The article said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had just confirmed that Zika had moved beyond Brazil and was now spreading throughout the Americas.

That’s when I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach.

I was traveling abroad with friends for a winter break, having fun in the tropics. News like this was the last thing anyone wanted to hear. But there was something ominous about this small, obscure article. As a publisher, I reacted to its stark and factual nature. No need to emotionally embellish this one.

The announcement haunted me on my trip. I called Dr. José Mosquera, world health expert and president of our Roberto Clemente Health Clinic, the nonprofit I chair. Of course, he had already heard the news. He agreed it was time for our Nicaraguan health center team to start taking precautions against Zika.

When I relayed the news about Zika to my travel companions, they nodded with polite concern. I suggested we take precautions and apply bug spray. After all, we were traveling close to the equator.

Not surprisingly, they reacted the way most people react to dire global health news. There is usually pretty much no reaction until they or someone they love is directly affected.

However, my “go natural” friend did react. She replied that she didn’t trust DEET or any insecticide spray. “Anyway, it’s not the rainy season, and I’m not getting bitten,” she said.

My friends didn’t want to hear it then. The world still doesn’t want to hear it now. But for the sake of our friends and families, it’s time to take the CDC’s worldwide yellow alert seriously.

Last January, I didn’t expect Zika to be such a complicated threat. Nor did I expect it to spread up north so quickly. After January, more and more cases were reported each month.

But still there was little media coverage… except around the Summer Olympics, as Brazil was ground zero for Zika cases hitting the Americas.

Soon after, we heard about the first Zika case hitting the U.S. in Florida. This was followed by news of Miami having a cluster of cases. We heard about Puerto Rico getting overwhelmed with confirmed cases. This woke us up a bit.

Health officials are becoming more concerned about the disease the more they learn about it. Just recently, Johns Hopkins linked Zika to Guillain-Barré, the neurological disorder that causes paralysis.

Now take a look at this chart. It may surprise you.

This chart does NOT show all cases in the U.S. And it’s not about Florida.

Where are these statistics from? New York City.

Zika is no longer a distant tropical disease. New York has the highest number of reported cases to date of any state in the U.S.

Thankfully, New York has the largest municipal healthcare delivery system in the U.S. It just implemented a “Zika Action Plan.”

Zika keeps delivering a punch to our gut in terms of what to expect. Still, there’s relative silence in the media. I understood why there was silence all summer and fall… the crazy U.S. elections dominated front-page headlines for months. But now that the elections are over, I thought we would hear more about it.

There is one group starting to talk more about Zika: millennials.

A young couple in my own family just canceled plans to travel overseas to our family reunion. I’m hearing concern from my employees as well. Certainly there’s concern from my Clinic team in Nicaragua.

The sobering fact is that this global yellow alert could turn red soon – as it did with yellow fever and cholera back in the day. The CDC’s number of U.S. cases is increasing every day.

There are 4,128 reported cases in the U.S.* and more than 30,000 cases in U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico.

There are also more than 3,268 confirmed cases of pregnant women having Zika in the U.S. and its territories.*
(*As of November 4.)

Remember, there were zero reported cases in the U.S. last January.

Thankfully, our states work with the CDC, EPA, WHO and other health organizations for prevention. States will sometimes proactively spray entire communities, from planes or trucks, without people realizing it. For example, states took extensive action spraying after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and after hurricanes in Florida.

But spraying pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes is controversial. It doesn’t have to go that far. The CDC argues that spraying pesticide should be a last resort.

That’s why Congress just approved $1.1 billion to go toward fighting Zika. In my city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins and the Institute for Global Health at the University of Maryland are conducting research.

It feels like we’re in good hands here in the U.S. because we can afford to be. But in many countries in the tropics, the cases are worse, and the money is not there.

We need to take action and start supporting the “forces” fighting Zika… not just in our backyard but in those places where mosquito-borne illnesses traditionally flourish.

Unfortunately, these breeding grounds are in parts of the world that can’t afford to fight – or don’t know how to fight – on their own.

This is where the good news finally comes in.

Please allow me to share the exemplary actions of one team in Nicaragua that has been helping to prevent the Zika epidemic since last January – one community at a time. With your help, it can continue to do so.

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic is a nonprofit registered in Maryland as a 501(c)(3) and located on the southwestern coast of Nicaragua.

The Clinic team has helped prevent, diagnose and treat this epidemic where it counts – in poor neighborhoods getting little help from their government.

Tola, Nicaragua, is in one of the poorest regions in the Americas. As you may be aware, most families that live in Nicaragua reside in deplorable conditions.

They live on dirt roads, sharing two-room tin shacks, often without clean water, in dusty or muddy conditions with stagnant water. With mosquito-borne dengue fever and other viruses, they had enough to contend with, even before Zika.

The Clinic also contends with chronic endemic problems like diabetes, heart conditions, asthma, obesity and other diseases.

It’s important to note that our Clinic is not located in the middle of nowhere where there is a small population.

It’s located in a peaceful, stable and fast-developing region of Central America.

It’s such a beautiful place with very warm people… and it’s become a popular destination for world travelers, so tourism is taking off, as is job growth and other opportunities.

Unfortunately, world travelers are the biggest threat when it comes to the spread of Zika.

I believe we are most effective when we help a single region like this one, in a focused way, with urgent healthcare. We are helping communities that lack the health resources we have in the U.S. to fight this epidemic.

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic also goes beyond the Zika prevention program, offering urgent care, primary care, healthy eating initiatives, and clean water treatment and distribution, as well as diagnostic, dental and pediatric services. All this with a staff of only 27 working 24/7 on a small budget.

The Clinic has come a long way since we opened our doors in 2004. The pressure on our budget is increasing. Our team has helped more than 10,000 patients each year with urgent care.

Our educational programs have greatly expanded. The kids in the surrounding 15 Nicaraguan communities often don’t go to school past the sixth grade, and many don’t go at all.

The Clinic is changing all this, with great success. To learn more about the Clinic and how you can help prevent the spread of the Zika virus, click here now.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Julia