It's Here! First Local Chikungunya Cases in Florida

[sue4e3]

Last edited Fri Jul 18, 2014, 01:59 PM - Edit history (1)

By Maggie Fox
Chikungunya has been reported in a Florida man and womanwho had not recently traveled, health officials said Thursday — the first indication that the painful virus has taken up residence in the United States.

Health experts had said it was only a matter of time before the virus, carried by mosquitoes, made its way to the U.S. It’s been spreading rapidly in the Caribbean and Central America. It's infected 350,000 and killed 21

There have been other U.S. cases but all have been among people who had recently traveled to affected regions.

“Seven months after the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya was recognized in the Western Hemisphere, the first locally acquired case of the disease has surfaced in the continental United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
"The first locally acquired case of the disease has surfaced in the continental United States.”

Florida health officials later said there were two cases: a 41-year-old woman in Miami-Dade County and a 50-year-old man in Palm Beach County.

S.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/its-here-first-local-chikungunya-cases-florida-n158746

[alfredo]

1. The downside of international travel.

[defacto7]

2. Far southern US

includes at least 13 states including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and on east through the deep south and up to Virginia. There are sightings in Utah as well. Officially 13 states but with sightings moving north there probably are more.

I've been watching this one and doing my best to educate the use of BTI -aegypti rather than chemical methods. It's an environmentally non-intrusive mosquito larvicide that is a natural solution to controlling this mosquito and appears to be entirely safe for humans.

[sue4e3]

3. I've been mildly watching this

because I have family in Florida where my eldest son will be visiting soon.