Most of you are probably aware about the Zika virus that hit Florida recently -- mainly Miami. If you haven't heard of Zika, it's a virus from the Aedes mosquito that when spread through a bite, causes a fever, rashes, muscle and joint pains, and red eyes -- so basically a regular, depressing cold that I usually get. I had these symptoms when I got sick in freshmen year; it turned out that I just caught a bad cold and some laryngitis, not Zika. Still, this is frightening because anyone could have this.

We all remember Ebola from last year. That disease struck the news and scared us all. It looked like we would be the next stars in a sequel of "Contagion" or "Quarantine." Everybody faced this problem of the disease potentially growing into something even more contagious than it really was at the time. It originated from West Africa, but somehow found its way into the U.S. Medical professionals returned from Africa and were found to have the disease.

I remember when one case was reported in New York City, as a doctor was found to have Ebola. I don't know what the outcome was, but I recall hearing people say they weren't going into the city anytime soon. I had a senior year trip into New York to see Broadway's "Aladdin." Ebola didn't stop us from taking a bus ride into the city; after all, we didn't spend $75 for nothing.

There was also the whole H1N1 craze, which was a bit of a while ago. I was in middle school, possibly early high school when the news spread about this new version of the flu. Vaccinations were encouraged, even in the form of a nasal spray. Many parents that don't believe vaccines can help their kids outwardly refused to even think about receiving the H1N1 shot -- that was also a concern since people were then allowing their families to be susceptible to this influenza.

Now we're all hearing about this "Zika" virus. I swear the names that they come up with for new strains just sound so evil, even though this one was taken from a location. At first we were all told that we would only become infected if the specific mosquito bit us, which was more prominent in the southeast of the U.S. Later, the media informed us that we didn't need to get stung by that particular and obnoxious bug -- we could get bitten by any other mosquito that happened to have come into contact with the Zika insect. Furthermore, the really frightening aspect of this whole outbreak is the fact that pregnant women are too scared to leave their homes for fear of getting infected, and therefore, permanently harming their babies.

So what on earth are we all supposed to do? Just hope that when we go outside, we won't get an infected mosquito bite? I can tell you that I have three mosquito bites... one of them could be Zika. See how the paranoia hits you? I love going outside. Swimming and working out are some of my favorite things to do when I go outside on a nice summer day. But how am I going to do these activities when everyone is freaking out about the new disease? Every time there's some new illness, it hasn't affected me, knock on wood. Then again, I could very well be one of those that later get the infection just by walking around town or hiking in the woods.

I don't think we should all just ignore the broadcast information, but we should not be afraid to leave our houses. As for the people in the zone of the most infected people, Miami should attempt to help the women in need of medical attention, especially for their future infants. Keeping the disease contained in one place is another important factor in preventing the whole country from getting sick.

Oh, but then CNN discovered that the Zika virus has been found in Rio, where the Olympics are being held. Isn't that just great? Our athletes, some of which just happen to be alumni of UC Davis, will be in Rio. Some Olympians have withdrawn from the games due to fears of infecting their families. There's the other fact that thousands of people are attending the games in Rio. I revert back to my question -- What are we supposed to do?

Well, I'm clearly not a doctor, but either someone comes up with a vaccine for this, or I guess we'll all simply wait it out, just like we did with a lot of other outbreaks. I wish I could provide an answer on what we should all do, or at the very least, say what I think everyone should do. As of right now, I'm the same as many of you: I have no idea what to do either.