More than 408,000 people landed at Missouri airports in 2015 traveling from 34 countries now ripe with Zika virus.  165,000 came through MCI in Kansas City.  On the Kansas side, more than 35,000 travelers passed through the airport in Wichita. 

These numbers are one reason Dr. Jackenson Davilmar, Medical Director, Haiti, and Dr. Rick Randolph, Chief Medical Officer, both with the humanitarian agency Heart to Heart International (HHI) headquartered in Kansas and Dr. Lee Norman, Chief Medical Officer, The University of Kansas Health System called a news conference to remind the public that we’re living in a global community. 

HHI doctors recently met with other public health experts as part of an Advisory Committee to talk about the global impact of Zika and to discuss HHI’s response to Zika in Haiti.  As part of its ongoing patient-care efforts in Haiti, HHI medical teams are leading an effort to educate people on the effects of Zika and focusing on maternal and child health. 

The committee also discussed the funding needs for HHI’s efforts in Haiti and the need for resources to get in front of the mosquito-borne illness by deploying mosquito nets and using insect repellent … both tools that people here in the U.S. take for granted, yet is a larger hill to climb in cultures with different values and levels of education.