I'm thinking the situation fits nicely with your second-to-the-last sentence, i.e. it is scary, but you can get used to it, and it does indeed come with the territory.
From what I could find in a Web search, there were three infections in the last year on the Big Island.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/6...2009-01-08 One of those recovered on his own with no treatment, although two required hospitalization, and one of those was significant, in that he was in a coma for some time. I couldn't find a final disposition for that patient, although it probably would've been newsworthy had he died, and I could find no such reference. The two who were hospitalized became infected together in that they ate the same veggies at the same dinner, so in reality, you could say that there were only two separate infectious sources for the three infections. A CDC report on rat lungworm infection says most infections resolve themselves without any treatment at all.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/...ngylus.htm
For me, I put this in the category of black widows here in southern California. Yes, they're here, they're real, and they're a slight problem. Nobody in the U.S. has actually died from a black widow bite in the last 10 years, but they're nasty little critters that actually do harm dozens or perhaps hundreds of people each year. More importantly, they are mostly avoidable and preventable. You can reduce the numbers of spiders around your house, just like you can reduce the numbers of snails and slugs (and rats) around your house in Hawaii. You can avoid sticking your hands into dark spaces where you can't see, just like you can clean your veggies and keep the catchment tank sealed in Hawaii. And, if you are bitten, there are very effective treatments, just like there are treatments for rat lungworm disease.
Black widow spiders are part of the scenery here in the desert Southwest. Rat lungworm is a parasite that is part of the scenery in Hawaii. When I move over there next spring, I'll be aware of the possiblity of infection, and do what I can to avoid and prevent it. But rat lungworm disease is not going to stop me from moving there.
This issue is one that reminds me, once again, that the media is very good at hyping up a problem to way-out-of-proportion dimensions, getting people hyperventilating, then just letting it die away with no follow-up as they pursue the next horror story that will get good ratings. Like, uh, swine flu?
Aloha! ;-)
]
]