Environment & Energy

hatrack

(59,587 posts) Thu Jul 31, 2014, 11:42 PM Jul 2014

Yoo-Hoo!! Chickungunya Cases Hit 25 In NJ, 44 In NY; 3 FL Cases Locally Transmitted

(Reuters) - Cases of chikungunya virus, a painful, mosquito-borne disease that has spread rapidly through the Caribbean in recent months, spiked higher in New York and New Jersey in the past week, according to new federal data.

The number of cases in New Jersey more than doubled to 25, while New York has recorded 44 cases, the highest number outside Florida, where the disease first established a toehold in the United States, according to data released late Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials in New Jersey and New York do not believe any of the cases originated in their state.

Symptoms, which develop three to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito, include high fever, headache, muscle pain, back pain and rash. In rare cases it is fatal. Small children and the elderly are more likely to develop severe cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC said the United States averaged 28 cases of chikungunya each year since 2006 but until recently all have been travel related. Three people in Florida contracted the disease from local mosquitoes this month in what the CDC said are the first cases of the disease to originate in the United States.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/30/us-usa-mosquito-chikungunya-idUSKBN0FZ21N20140730

4 replies

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Yoo-Hoo!! Chickungunya Cases Hit 25 In NJ, 44 In NY; 3 FL Cases Locally Transmitted (Original Post) hatrack Jul 2014 OP

And as the planet heats up montanacowboy Jul 2014 #1

We are going to see more of this kind of thing gwheezie Jul 2014 #2

How did we get so lucky in New York? In_The_Wind Aug 2014 #3

Better that than dengue Warpy Aug 2014 #4

montanacowboy

(6,092 posts)

1. And as the planet heats up

Reply to hatrack (Original post)

Thu Jul 31, 2014, 11:50 PM

Jul 2014

get ready for many tropical diseases to move northward

Since DC is built on a swamp, it might be mosquito central

gwheezie

(3,580 posts)

2. We are going to see more of this kind of thing

Reply to hatrack (Original post)

Thu Jul 31, 2014, 11:51 PM

Jul 2014

I remember when wnv 1st showed up among horses here in Virginia, my vet told me to vaccinate once a year in the spring as during the winter there was a die off but the past few years there has been no massive bug die off so my vet recommends vaccinating in December as well.

In_The_Wind

(72,300 posts)

3. How did we get so lucky in New York?

Reply to hatrack (Original post)

Fri Aug 1, 2014, 12:12 AM

Aug 2014

Warpy

(111,275 posts)

4. Better that than dengue

Reply to hatrack (Original post)

Fri Aug 1, 2014, 12:13 AM

Aug 2014

which is just as painful and makes you wish you could die the first time you get it. The second time you get it, you might just die.

Chikungunya isn't fatal, as far as we know so far, at least not by itself. It does raise the mortality rates from other diseases in affected people.

Neither disease is transmitted from person to person, they're both transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, a variety that is most active during the day, instead of during the evening and night for malaria vector mosquitoes.

So far, most cases are in people who have come from vacations in the Caribbean. A transmission occurring within the continental US is bad news.

The only good news is that up to 15% of people who are infected never get that ill from it.

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