Chikungunya: 659,554 cases as of Sept 5, not as lethal as Ebola but spreading way faster.

Chikungunya: 659,554 cases as of September 5, not as lethal as Ebola but spreading way faster.HT: Crof.

Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.

It can cause high fever, join and muscle pain, and headache. Chikungunya does not often result in death, but the joint pain may last for months or years and may become a cause of chronic pain and disability.

There is no specific treatment for chikungunya infection, nor any vaccine to prevent it. 

Pending the development of a new vaccine, the only effective means of prevention is to protect individuals against mosquito bites.

PAHO has published its weekly Friday update on its Chikungunya page.

Click through to download the PDF. We're now in week 36, and as usual, some countries are weeks behind in reporting.

The Dominican Republic, as of week 34, has 429,421 cases; 

Haiti, as of week 28, had 64,695 (very likely a severe undercount).

PAHO now tallies 659,554 suspected and confirmed cases. Hmmmm....As i warned before,  once this disease gets foothold in America's wetlands and swamps you'll have an unstoppable disease on your hands.