The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AS THE chikungunya virus continues to gain a foothold throughout the Caribbean, the illness, which causes an abrupt onset of high fever and intense joint pain, has yet to be detected in the Bahamas.

Addressing concerns over the spread of the mosquito-born virus – which is rarely fatal – Environmental Health Director Melanie McKenzie confirmed to The Tribune there had been no cases up to late last week in the archipelago.

Ms McKenzie noted that the chikungunya virus is carried by the same mosquito that hosts the dengue fever, a virus against which officials always launch precautionary measures ahead of the rainy season. Particular attention, she said, has been paid to the southern islands of The Bahamas, where residents from countries that have had outbreaks of the virus have been travelling.

In the Caribbean, concern about chikungunya is growing as many countries enter their wettest months. The only way to stop the virus is to contain the population of mosquitos – a task that commonly relies on individual efforts such as installing screened windows and making sure mosquitos are not breeding in stagnant water.

Late last month, St Vincent, the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda became the latest Caribbean countries to report confirmed cases. In the Dominican Republic, there are now 17 confirmed cases and over 3,000 suspected ones. Last week the virus was discussed by health authorities at a two-day conference in the Dominican Republic attended by representatives of Central American countries.

Experts say eradicating vector-borne diseases like chikungunya once they become entrenched is an extremely difficult task. Dr James Hospedales, executive director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency, recently described the virus as the “new kid on the block”.

Health experts have said that there are currently more than 4,000 confirmed cases of the fast-spreading chikungunya virus in the Caribbean, most of them in the French Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Martin. Another 31,000 suspected cases have been reported across the region of scattered islands. Marie Guirlaine Raymond Charite, general director of Haiti’s health ministry, said there are several suspected cases of chikungunya but nothing has been confirmed yet.

The often painful illness most commonly found in Asia and Africa was first detected in December in St Martin. It was the first time that local transmission of chikungunya had been reported in the Americas. Since then, it has spread to nearly a dozen other islands and French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the north shoulder of South America.

It is rarely fatal and most chikungunya patients recover within a week but some people experience joint pain for months to years. There is no vaccine and it is spread by the pervasive Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever, a similar but often more serious illness with a deadly haemorrhagic form.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring the uncontrolled spread of the new vector-borne virus in the Caribbean and has been advising travellers about how best to protect themselves, such as applying mosquito repellant and sleeping in screened rooms. It is also closely watching for any signs of chikungunya in the US.

“To help prepare the US for possible introduction of the virus, CDC has been working with state health departments to increase awareness about chikungunya and to facilitate diagnostic testing and early detection of any US cases,” said Dr Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC.