TAMPA, FL (WFTS) — A Tampa farm that helps people recover from substance use disorder is taking extra precautions to protect its clients from the dengue fever outbreak, and the push is personal for the man who runs it.
George Wood, the pastor and founder of Root Awakening Farm, contracted dengue fever after being bitten by a mosquito near his home off Nebraska Avenue, a neighborhood he later learned was a hot spot for cases in the area. He became the fourth confirmed patient.
Watch report from Jada Williams
"I work outside. My business is outside, and we assumed at first it you know must have come from there, but through you know more investigation and talking to our neighbors, we turned out that our neighbor across the street, their eight-year-old son, was patient three," Wood said.
That discovery changed everything. Wood realized he had not contracted the disease at work, where he spends much of his time outdoors on the farm's 4 acres. He had gotten it steps from his own front door.
Wood said the illness came on fast and hit hard. It started with unusual joint pain in his shoulders before escalating into something far more serious.
"I started getting a rash, my eyes started to hurt, and the really bad part was about day four or five, and it had been a solid four or five days with 100 to 102 fever, and nothing we did would lower it," Wood said.
He and his wife had already ruled out the most obvious explanations. He tested negative for COVID-19 and the flu multiple times. His wife first suggested dengue fever might be the answer, and the more Wood looked into it, the more it made sense.
He eventually went to the hospital, where he said the reception was not what he expected.
"My skin was burnt, rash, red all the way around, all including inside of my mouth. I couldn't chew. I couldn't eat," Wood said.
Despite describing those symptoms to hospital staff, Wood said doctors dismissed his suspicion that he had dengue fever.
"I was in the hospital laying in the bed, and my wife was watching the news as they're talking about dengue fever in the area, as the disease control specialist inside the hospital is telling me I'm wrong. It was a really bizarre feeling," Wood said.
Wood said he and his wife pushed back hard. He spent roughly two to two and a half days in the hospital, much of that time in a hallway. By the time he was discharged, his dengue test results had not even come back yet. They came in two days later, and they were positive.
Wood said the experience left him frustrated, not just for himself, but because it suggested how others might be treated. He has spent years working with people experiencing homelessness and those in recovery, and he said the dismissal he felt in that hospital bed immediately made him think of them.
"When you're working so hard to save your life, right, fighting you know a life-threatening thing like substance use disorder, it doesn't take much to make you fall back into an old way of thinking about yourself that you're you're worthless, that your life doesn't matter," Wood said.
Wood said people without stable housing have no easy way to avoid mosquito exposure. They cannot simply go inside, pull out long sleeves, or grab a can of repellent from a closet. And if they do make it to a hospital feeling the way Wood felt, he worries they will face even more skepticism than he did.
That concern sent him back to Root Awakening with a mission.
He hired a private company to spray the farm twice for mosquitoes. Staff walked the entire property to identify and eliminate any standing water or areas where mosquitoes could breed. Cans of insect repellent are now stationed at multiple points across the property, and staff regularly remind clients to use them.
"We actually had someone come out and do like a they went walked around the property and showed us all the different areas that we needed to be careful, so we went above and beyond to make sure that our clients are protected," Wood said.
Wood said the stakes at a place like Root Awakening are different than they might be elsewhere. The people the farm serves are already fighting for their lives in a very real sense.
"What we're trying to do is change the way the world looks at recovery from substance use disorder and behavioral health issues, so that people can be seen as a full human being, as a person, and not just their their disease or their their label that society puts on them," Wood said.
He said a dengue diagnosis, or worse, a dismissal from a hospital, could unravel the progress someone has worked hard to make.
"When you're working so hard to save your life, right, fighting you know a life-threatening thing like substance use disorder, it doesn't take much to make you fall back into an old way of thinking about yourself that you're you're worthless, that your life doesn't matter," Wood said.
Wood also said he hopes his experience leads to better communication between Hillsborough County health officials and local hospitals. He said the disconnect he witnessed firsthand, between what was being reported publicly about the outbreak and what hospital staff seemed to know, should not happen again.
Hillsborough County leads the Tampa Bay area in dengue fever cases. Tampa Bay 28 Tampa Metro reporter Jada Williams has been covering the outbreak since its early stages. That includes efforts to kill the mosquitoes carrying the disease and the investigation into the first confirmed death in the county.
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