Thane Hancock desperately wants to protect pregnant women and their babies from an insidious attacker — the Zika virus.
Hancock, who was born in Hilo and grew up in Waimea, leads a public health battle against the mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted illness.
“If we do our job appropriately, people don’t even really know we’re out there,” Hancock said in a telephone call from Guam, where he is stationed as the Pacific liaison for territorial health in the U.S.-affiliated islands.
Mosquitoes in Hawaii, so far, are not known to carry Zika.
“There have been no locally acquired cases of Zika. All of the cases identified in Hawaii have been travel-related and infected while outside of Hawaii,” the state Department of Health’s Zika page says. But mosquitoes that carry Zika (which the Department of Health says are also the ones that transmit dengue and chikungunya) do live in Hawaii.
That means the Zika virus could potentially be brought in by an infected traveler, if the traveler gets bitten by mosquitoes in Hawaii, the Health Department noted.
But Hancock and his team hope to mitigate the chances of Zika getting established in Hawaii or anyplace beyond the countries where it already exists. As the coordinator who oversees the task force in charge of Zika response, Hancock’s responsibilities include:
• Efforts to alter human behavior.
• Disease surveillance.
• Mosquito population management.
• Rapid reaction to countries’ requests for U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention crisis-response teams.
• Early morning daily briefings, via teleconference to CDC headquarters in Atlanta, that kick off long workdays.
• Educational efforts designed for people in affected locations.
“Our primary goal is really about trying to protect pregnant women and their babies,” Hancock said. “That’s really been our focus.”
To do that, he and his team must raise awareness, in affected locales and beyond, that Aedes mosquitoes can carry Zika, bite and transmit it to humans. They must raise awareness among women of child-bearing age, especially if pregnant, that it’s essential to avoid mosquito bites when living in, or traveling to, regions where Zika is present.
That’s because Zika can cause miscarriages — and birth defects known as microcephaly.
According to the CDC(https://www.cdc.gov/zika/), microcephaly occurs when a baby’s head is smaller than normal, often because the brain has not grown to the size it should. That can cause severe physical and cognitive problems.
“CDC continues to study birth defects, such as microcephaly, and how to prevent them,” the agency says online. “If you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, talk with your doctor about ways to increase your chances of having a healthy baby.”
The Pacific region Hancock oversees for the CDC regularly ships blood samples to the Hawaii Department of Health for Zika testing.
Hancock collaborates wherever he works with community health workers to bolster existing public health services.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about Zika. There’s a lot that we’ve learned that sort of surprised us,” he said. For example, health officials didn’t realize, early on, that Zika can be spread sexually.
Presence of the ailment in tropical zones is problematic for those, like Hancock, who want to quell its spread.
“We don’t have winter coming up that’s really going to reduce our mosquito population,” he said. Thus, the disease can continue to flourish unabated.
Hancock’s older brother was born in Micronesia and joined their family as a foster child.
“My brother still lives in Hawaii and here I am out in Micronesia,” Hancock said. “We sometimes joke that we switched destinies.”
Hancock relies on his childhood Hawaii experiences to guide him as an adult.
“It’s funny. My accent — most people think I’m straight from the mainland, even though I grew up there,” he said. “I think growing up in Hawaii, you’re an islander. I look so haole. But, once they realize I was born and raised in Hawaii, they can kind of sense that. It really helps break down some of the barriers.”
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.