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Monday, June 2, 2025

US issues Chikungunya virus travel alert after more cases detected in Caribbean

by

20140615

Beat that bug!Health Min­is­ter Fuad Khan has urged T&T com­mu­ni­ties to main­tain vig­i­lence to erad­i­cate mos­qui­toes and en­sure the mos­qui­to-borne chikun­gun­ya virus–now in 20 Caribbean is­lands and some US states–doesn't sur­face here.Not­ing that T&T is among a few re­gion­al ter­ri­to­ries that is free of the painful virus, Khan said: "We can't af­ford to be com­pla­cent. En­sur­ing your sur­round­ings don't har­bour stag­nant wa­ter and mos­qui­toes is key."

Khan was com­ment­ing on news re­ports over the week­end that the vi­ral ill­ness has sur­faced across the Unit­ed States "car­ried by re­cent trav­el­ers to the Caribbean where it was re­port­ed that the virus is rag­ing".At­lanta's Cen­tre for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC) is ad­vis­ing US trav­el­ers to the Caribbean pro­tect them­selves from mos­qui­to bites. The warn­ing was is­sued at the start of the sum­mer va­ca­tion pe­ri­od when trav­el to the re­gion in­creas­es.

The virus is trans­mit­ted by Aedes Egyp­ti mos­qui­toes who may bite in­fect­ed per­sons. There is no vac­cine. While the virus does not typ­i­cal­ly lead to death, con­di­tions can be­come de­bil­i­tat­ing.Symp­toms can be­come em­pha­sized and dan­ger­ous for adults over 65, new­borns and in­di­vid­u­als who al­ready have health is­sues like di­a­betes, heart dis­ease or high blood pres­sure.Most com­mon symp­toms are fever and joint pain as well as headache, mus­cle pain, joint swelling, or rash. Joint pain can take up to a few months or longer for full re­cov­ery.

The Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (Carpha) last week re­port­ed that the num­ber of con­firmed and sus­pect­ed cas­es rose to 135,651, up from just over 100,000 on June 2. The virus has been de­tect­ed in 20 Caribbean coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries, with the largest out­break in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Carpha said trav­el­ers to the fol­low­ing Caribbean is­lands are at risk of get­ting chikun­gun­ya: An­guil­la, An­tigua, British Vir­gin Is­land, Do­mini­ca, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, French Guiana, Guade­loupe, Guyana, Haiti, Mar­tinique, Puer­to Ri­co, Saint Barthele­my, Saint Kitts, Saint Lu­cia, St Mar­tin, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, St Maarten (Dutch)The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic has had more than 77,000 sus­pect­ed cas­es since Jan­u­ary, in­clud­ing 20,000 new sus­pect­ed cas­es in the last week.

Con­firmed cas­es were re­port­ed in North Car­oli­na, Ne­bras­ka and In­di­ana last week. Flori­da with 25 cas­es has the ma­jor­i­ty in the US, ac­cord­ing to the CDC.Khan said his Min­istry has been work­ing over the last eight months with oth­er lo­cal bod­ies to keep on top of the sit­u­a­tion:

"The rea­son T&T hasn't got­ten Chikun­gun­ya yet is be­cause a lot of work is be­ing done by agen­cies, in­clud­ing the In­sect Vec­tor Unit and oth­ers, to try to con­trol mos­qui­to spread."T&T can stay free of this if we keep do­ing the right things...Use in­sect re­pel­lant or cit­ronel­la oil. Check wa­ter stor­age units or your plants dai­ly. If nec­es­sary, call the In­sect Vec­tor Con­trol Unit and they'll come and spray," he added.

Trav­el­ers to Africa, Asia, and is­lands in the In­di­an Ocean and West­ern Pa­cif­ic are al­so at risk as the virus is present in many of these ar­eas.

Chikun­gun­ya facts

The mos­qui­to that car­ries the chikun­gun­ya virus can bite dur­ing the day and night, both in­doors and out­doors. It of­ten lives around build­ings in ur­ban ar­eas.Symp­toms sur­face with­in three to sev­en days af­ter a bite from an in­fect­ed mos­qui­to and typ­i­cal­ly dis­si­pate with­in a week.The fol­low­ing pre­cau­tions should be tak­en against the virus:

�2 Cov­er ex­posed skin by wear­ing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats.

�2 Use an ap­pro­pri­ate in­sect re­pel­lent as di­rect­ed.

�2 Stay and sleep in screened or air con­di­tioned rooms.

�2 Use a bed net if the area where you are sleep­ing is ex­posed to the out­doors.


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