The U.S. has this week started to see its first few cases of chikungunya, a viral mosquito-borne disease characterized by pain and fever.
State health officials of North Carolina, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, Nebraska and Indiana have all reported their first cases of the viral disease, none of which were reported to be infected in the continental U.S. As of June 10, 2014, there have been a total of 39 chikungunya cases in the U.S. and its territories, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says all 39 cases of the illness were contracted by individuals who travelled to the Caribbean Islands, were more than 130,000 cases of chikungunya were reported this year alone.
Chikungunya, whose symptoms usually include fever, joint pain, headaches, muscle pain and rash, is not a deadly disease. The symptoms usually surface in three to seven days after patients are bitten. They can recover after approximately a week of proper care, but it is still advisable to take the proper precautions against the disease.
Also, according to infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Dr. William Schaffner, it will be "more difficult" for the chikungunya virus to "establish itself here." However, Dr. Schaffner says that while we can "separate the humans from the mosquito population," there is no way to guarantee isolation.
The CDC warns that the risk of infected travelers spreading the illness in continental U.S. still exists. State health officials agree.
"If they are bitten by an infected mosquito while they are there (the Caribbean), and then they come back to Orange County, they can develop illness. If they are bitten by one of our mosquitoes here then it becomes infected, then it can turn around and bite someone else," says North Carolina's Orange County community health supervisor Judy Butler.
Butler also says it is actually easy to minimize the risks of contracting chikungunya and recommends mosquito-repellant measures most of us already know, including emptying all sources of stagnant water where mosquitoes like to breed, keeping our homes properly screened and applying insect repellants, such as DEET, Picaridin and lemon eucalyptus oil. The Tennessee Department of Health also recommends using Permethrin-treated clothing, avoiding fragrances and wearing long, loose and light clothing outdoors.
THE CDC says it is also monitoring nine other states for cases of chikungunya, namely California, Nevada, Arkansas, Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Connecticut and Puerto Rico.
Numerous places in Asia, Africa and Europe have seen outbreaks of chikungunya, which is caused by the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. It was only in late 2013 that the first case of the disease was reported in the Americas, particularly in the Caribbean Islands. The disease seems to be spreading alarmingly fast, as the Caribbean Public Health Agency reports that the number of chikungunya cases rose from just over 100,000 earlier this month to more than 135,000 cases this week. More than half of those cases, or around 77,000, were reported in the Dominican Republic.
