Jones
This is Jones Ginting. He lives in a village near Kaben Jahe, North Sumatra with his wife and two kids. They’re really nice people.
Last April, Jones (it’s pronounced “yoh’-nahs”) was at a backyard barbeque with his family, when his sister started feeling sick. Over the next two days, she was struck with a terrible fever and died. Then his father himself, and five other family members started having stabbing pains and aches in their limbs. Everyone but Jones died in the hospital. Later tests revealed that they’d contracted a new strain of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. One that is able to be transmitted from human to human.
A journalist I met from Indonesian Metro TV brought me to Jones’ house, and when we arrived, he was sleeping. His wife laid out a mat on the tile floor for us to sit and wait while Jonas slept. I offered to come back later, but she said “But he’s always sleeping. If you go away, he’ll just get up and go back to sleep by the time you return.”
That’s a Megadeath tee-shirt he’s wearing. He’s got some serious ink on his arms and legs – most of it fantasy and religious symbols you’d expect to see on metal jacket covers.
Jones is a very soft spoken guy, and doesn’t have a lot to say about the ordeal. He wants to move on, to raise his two sons, and to take on the responsibilities of the family’s orange grove. For right now, he’s focused on gaining back the 22 pounds he lost during his fever.
posted by Chad at 7:25 AM
2 Comments:
1. Jonas looks like about 14 years old.
2. You are really close to bird flu!!!
Please be careful
1. Jones is 24 years old, and has a wife and two sons.
2. Thank you for raising the issue of risk.
I took as much precaution as I could, and kept my distance from risk areas. If the virus changes into a pandemic strain, there will be very serious risks for everyone. Such mutations are likely to come from places like Indonesia, where birds are transmitting to humans. Each human case has the potential to produce mutations. SO- when it appears this disease has become easily transmittable between people, I will be taking precautions. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, and I'm paranoid around sick people. I'm a bit like TV's Monk when I'm around people who sneeze, for example. I hold my breath while the disease cloud dissipates, and watch virus vectors like they're highlighted in neon yellow. ‘Hmm. He washed his hands after sneezing, but he touched the countertop when he got a tissue, the doorknob on the way to the bathroom, and who knows what else before I heard the water come on.’ I also pride myself on recognizing symptoms as early as possible. It's a kind of game for me - probably comes from the herb study days in North Carolina. It means I'm a bit of a weenie when I'm getting sick, but I think I'm a pretty good self-screener. One of the reasons people have a higher rate of death from bird flu here than in other countries is because people do not report symptoms or go to the doctor early enough.
That's the case in all rural communities. Without free and accessible screening for dangerous diseases like diabetes, breast cancer, or HIV - poor people die.
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