TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Cancel Feb 2017 family trip to BVI/USVI - Zika?

Hi - just another anxious tourist! I've already booked villas/hotels with deposits for my family trip, and I think we're getting freaked out by media coverage/CDC and recent reports of spreading in Puerto Rico, ties to Guillen-Barre, etc. My kids are 8 and 10, and we have no pregnancy concerns, but the last thing we want in a relaxing vacation is to be anxious when (cuz it will happen, daily deet or not) we get a bite or two. How do you folks feel about it? I hope our villa owners are nice about a potential change of mind. We were doing one week VG and one week STJ.
Thanks

Personally, I would not cancel. Zika is the "new kid on the block" but those same mosquitoes have been there, with the threat of dengue or chikungunya ( sp) forever, and mosquitoes are not going away in any of our lifetimes.

I go skiing knowing I can fall down and hit my head, or my hip, or my elbow, or my bindings don't release and < boom>

I drive a car, usually within 25 miles of home, sometimes much, much further. One < boom> is all it takes.

I fly in airplanes. One Boom, again, is all it takes.

Thunderstorms happen frequently in summer. Lightning sometimes strikes. One boom is all it takes.

I live in a 100 year flood plain, and pay ridiculous sums for FEMA required flood insurance. The only way I can afford that is to have a 5K deductible, which means that every penny I pay out for insurance is pure profit for < someone else>. One <boom> is all it takes.

You have 2 kids, 8 and 10. Their likelihood of a doctors visit for Strep throat in the next year is ??? what?? Fall off bicycle ?? Bee sting ??

I'm not you, and neither am I your partner. Zika is not something that would frighten me away from vacation.

Been down here since the end of May..if its not one thing its another..aint no guarantees in life except living in a plastic bubble and never touching another Big Mac. Come on down and, BTW, I don't think many villa owners are going to allow the "Zika scare" to be reason to cancel..I hear they even have some weird ailments now in the US!

We just spent 13 days in the USVI/BVI and didn't have a problem -- no deet was even used.

I recently booked an 11 day charter for Feb '17...Zika never entered my mind.

Don't disagree at all, but chikungunya (which you did spell correctly) is recent - only in the BVI since 2014, I believe.

Could not agree more! You probably face greater dangers in your daily life.... Certainly annual influenza is more dangerous. Risk of GBS.. Which few people had heard of and which occurs both randomly and with all sorts of common diseases is incredibly rare. The illness is generally mild - absolutely of concern re: pregnancy but if that is not an issue I wouldn't be particularly worried. Deet, caution and have fun.

If someone was going to be getting pregnant, I definitely could see where you would cancel a trip or not book to begin with. However, otherwise I PERSONALLY would not worry about it. We live in Florida and there are now several cases of Zika in Florida, NOT involving travel outside of Florida, and officials are expecting it to only go up from here. So if you decide not to go to the BVI or USVI, I guess you should mark off Disney World, Miami, etc., etc., off your vacation list also..

I stopped posting often on TTOL for various reasons but Carol has this spot on.....holy God.....cancel a vacation to heaven for this?? Like she said - don't go to Florida...don't drink your water (Flint)....don't let your kids go to school (columbine) and don't let them ride in a car, bus, train and for God sake do not take a cruise! And....the list goes on. Okay....I am done!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> Sorry!!!

Understandable concern but likelihood of GBS is low. Also Sporadic with a lot of other "inciting events".
Pregnant or trying to get pregnant....DON"T go.
I have 6 weeks planned for the next year and will carry DEET...

Agree that villa (or boat) owners not likely to give full refund

You stated no pregnancy issues, which would be the only reason for me to consult with my physician. My family uses Deet and we still get an occasional bite. I know people who have had Dengue, some more than once, but as Manpot stated there are no guarantees in life....stay positive and live life!

With no pregnancy issues I don't believe you have any reason to cancel. There have been millions of people certainly contact this virus world wide. Like West Nile a decade or so ago, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be an epidemic in many areas of the U.S. We have the appropriate Mosquitos in much of the country and anyone flying gets an appreciation for the number of daily travelers going thru Miami and other gateways to and from Caribbean where Zika is prevalent. To believe we will confine an outbreak to a 1 sq mile neighborhood in Miami is beyond silly. It's not like the disease has to spread from there. You will have people in every region returning from the tropics..some infected with Zika. Nobody will be tested likely till there are cases of microcephaly. Outside of that and in immune compromised people it seems to have very mild symptoms. There will be little testing in the areas beyond Florida. With West Nile, because of severity of symptoms in horses and people it was easy to track the disease. I'm not sure the correlation with birth defect is simply the virus. Some neurologist on CNN yesterday was at the epicenter of the abnormal births in Brazil. It was a very poor area on the northeast coast. The population was very poor and nutrition was very bad as well. His point was there may be a combination of factors. Surely hope so.
We had a friend who are contemplating having a baby at some point in the not distant future that had booked and cancelled our accomodations on VG. I would not dream of charging them in their situation. For Brenda and I, I don't give it a second thought.

I agree with all the above - I don't see any reason not to go.

Think about where you live - I know around here we have other illnesses that mosquitos carry - EEE for example. If you aren't pregnant or planning on getting pregnant, I think this is more minor then EEE even if you do get it.

Clearly you will decide, but I am going this Oct and plan to bring some extra deet and long sleeve rashguards/sailing shirts (and may even wear socks)....Dengue or chikungunya are no fun either!

Consumer Reports once reported that the best mosquito repellant is a good breeze- they are not strong fliers. So stay in the breeze and relax.

If there is any chance anyone may be pregnant anytime in the near future that person should see their doctor and be very careful even proactive with many things. Months ahead of anyone getting pregnant that person should visit with their physician. That long known fact out of the way.

The unique thing about these mosquitoes is they stay close to home and do not travel. Unless there is a problem on a specific BVI island there is little chance anyone would be at real risk from these mosquitos. The real risk comes from densely populated urban areas for the most part.

See the CDC announcement on how specific the area of real concern is in Florida.

http://www.cdc.gov/zika/intheus/florida-update.html

Hi Don - In February you probably won't even see a mosquito unless you go into the bush. By all means bring down or buy Off with deet but you'll probably not need it at all. cheers Brian