Lindsay Lohan battles Chikungunya virus, while the Caribbean are under assault by chikungunya in 2014.

Lindsay Lohan battles Chikungunya virus, while the Caribbean are under assault by chikungunya in 2014.. HT: Crof.


Sounds exotic. And not something you want to catch.

After Lindsay Lohan wrapped up her two-month run in Speed-the-Plow in London at the end of November, she was ready for some rest and relaxation.

She headed for someplace tropical. But the trip to paradise has soured a bit. During her French Polynesian trip with longtime friend Patrick Aufdenkamp, she contracted the Chikungunya virus.

She has been tweeting and Instagramming photos about her trip.

Being sick is no fun. But happy new year everyone. Be safe. Love all. Make a difference and keep your… http://t.co/V7i2F8KnTz
— Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) December 29, 2014

Before I got chikungunya 😥😰😪 use Big spray please 🙏 God bless. http://t.co/8xg2gNWBz5
— Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) December 28, 2014

Via Caribbean360.com: 2014 year in review: Caribbean rocked by Chikungunya. Excerpt:

Three general elections and continued socio-economic problems may have made the headlines in the Caribbean in 2014, but it was the Chikungunya virus, the mosquito borne disease that really caught the attention of the region over the past 12 months. 

In addition, while no cases had been recorded, Caribbean countries were putting in place various measures to deal with the deadly Ebola virus that have killed more than 7,000 people in West Africa and spread also by the same mosquito responsible for the Chikungunya virus. 

A crippling mosquito-borne virus with a tongue twisting name, Chikungunya first appeared in the Caribbean towards the end of 2013. But by the end of 2014, every Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country had recorded cases of the virus caused by the aedes aegypti mosquito that causes a dengue-like sickness. 

Symptoms include a sudden high fever, severe pain in the wrists, ankles or knuckles, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and rash. Joint pain and stiffness are more common with Chikungunya than with dengue. The symptoms appear between four to seven days after the bite of an infected mosquito. 

The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) warned the Caribbean has not yet felt the “full impact” of the disease. 

“There is an estimate in excess of 600,000 cases in total, most of those being from the bigger countries like the Dominican Republic and Haiti with 37 deaths in total. So it continues to spread,” said CARPHA’s executive director Dr. James Hospedales. 

Dr. Hospedales said that with a population of 17 million people, the region is still in the early stages of the virus, warning “the full bloom of Chikungunya virus is yet to come. 

“I am saying because everybody in this part of the world and there is no resistance to this virus and we have an abundance of the vector and we have a lot of movement. In six months it has moved to all the islands and we can expect further increases in levels of cases because of what has happened elsewhere in the world where in some countries you find a 30 per cent attack rate of the entire population within a year or so.”

More in detail info on Chikungunya can be read here.