Chikungunya Virus in the Southeast

The virus is transmitted by the yellow fever mosquito, which also carries yellow fever and dengue fever. The virus can cause fever and joint pain that can be debilitating in severe cases. The virus cannot be transmitted between people, but only by mosquito bite. There is no vaccine against it. Chikungunya outbreaks have been reported in several Central American and Caribbean countries in the past two years. So far, all the reported cases in the U.S. have been by travelers to countries where the virus is established.

The virus can spread by a mosquito biting someone infected and then biting someone without the disease. The CDC is worried that the virus will spread to the United States from either infected mosquitoes from Caribbean countries or from infected individuals introducing the virus into the yellow fever mosquitoes already found in the United States, and possibly other mosquito species.

Symptoms develop within 3 to 7 days of infection. The fever usually lasts a few days to a week, but the joint pain may last more than a month. Anyone with a fever, headache, rash, and/or joint pain should go to a doctor.

The CDC gives guidelines to prevent mosquito bites and possible infection.

• Use air conditioning or window/door screens to keep mosquitoes outside. If you are not able to protect yourself from mosquitoes inside your home or hotel, sleep under a mosquito bed net.
• Help reduce the number of mosquitoes outside your home or hotel room by emptying standing water from containers such as flowerpots or buckets.
• When weather permits, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants.
• Use insect repellents.
• Repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and oil of lemon eucalyptus and para-menthane-diol products provide long lasting protection.
• If you use both sunscreen and insect repellent, apply the sunscreen first and then the repellent. 
• Do not spray repellent on the skin under your clothing.
• Treat clothing with permethrin or purchase permethrin-treated clothing.
• Always follow the label instructions when using insect repellent or sunscreen.

CDC Chikungunya virus
 AL.com First Alabama Virus Case