FL Survival / A Survival Community
Survivalist's Resources & Preparedness => First-Aid and Medical Station => : siege571 May 22, 2014, 02:49:33 PM
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Four cases have been confirmed in Florida (carried by travelers from the Caribbean). It is spread by mosquitoes. Not deadly, it seems, but extremely painful.
Read more at link. http://news.yahoo.com/painful-rapid-spread-virus-caribbean-040106421.html
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The virus is chikungunya, derived from an African word that loosely translates as "contorted with pain." People encountering it in the Caribbean for the first time say the description is fitting. While the virus is rarely fatal it is extremely debilitating....
Outbreaks of the virus have long made people miserable in Africa and Asia. But it is new to the Caribbean, with the first locally transmitted case documented in December in French St. Martin, likely brought in by an infected air traveler. Health officials are now working feverishly to educate the public about the illness, knock down the mosquito population, and deal with an onslaught of cases.
Authorities are attempting to control mosquitoes throughout the Caribbean, from dense urban neighborhoods to beach resorts. There have been no confirmed cases of local transmission of chikungunya on the U.S. mainland, but experts say the high number of travelers to the region means that could change as early as this summer....
Chikungunya was identified in Africa in 1953 and is found throughout the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere. It is spread by two species of mosquitoes, aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus. It's also a traveler-borne virus under the right circumstances.
It can spread to a new area if someone has it circulating in their system during a relatively short period of time, roughly 2-3 days before the onset of symptoms to 5 days after, and then arrives to an area with the right kind of mosquitoes.
For years, there have been sporadic cases of travelers diagnosed with chikungunya but without local transmission. In 2007, there was an outbreak in northern Italy, so health authorities figured it was just a matter of time before it spread to the Western Hemisphere, said Dr. Roger Nasci, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"With the increase in travelers the likelihood that something like this would happen goes up and eventually it did," said Nasci, chief of a CDC branch that tracks insect-borne diseases. "We ended up with somebody at the right time and the right place infecting mosquitoes."
The two species of mosquitoes that spread chikungunya are found in the southern and eastern United States and the first local transmissions could occur this summer given the large number of U.S. travelers to the Caribbean, Nasci said. Already, the Florida Department of Health has reported at least four imported cases from travelers to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Dominica.
"What we're seeing now is an increase in the number of infected travelers coming from the Caribbean, which is expected because there's a lot of U.S. travel, a lot of vacation travel, a lot of work travel," he said.
Around the Caribbean, local authorities have been spraying fogs of pesticides and urging people to remove standing pools of water where mosquitoes breed.
An estimated 60-90 percent of those infected show symptoms, compared to around 20 percent for dengue, which is common in the region. There is no vaccine and the only cure is treatment for the pain and fluid loss.
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Wow. You are a bundle of joyous news, aren't you?
On that note........... Has anyone used this: http://www.gemplers.com/product/223966/Dynatrap-Insect-Eliminator
I had one of the larger ones that uses propane, but it died, so was thinking of getting this one.
The propane based one worked. No more to be said. It absolutely got rid of the mosquitoes around my home perfectly.
But this one is way less expensive, and doesn't need jugs of propane. So if it also works, I would probably go with it.
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Just a matter of time me reckons. And there will be more here in Florida with this and it will be normal.
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I am concerned because I don't want the same thing that happened to me to possibly happen to you all and your families. I think this virus could kick off a lot of problems for some people like parvovirus (PV) did for me. If you get PV as an adult, it causes severe joint pain and inflammation and is one of the top 4 common viruses to kick a person's autoimmune system into high gear. This new (to us) virus is similar.
This is what's happened to me since I contracted PV in 2003 (there was an outbreak of Fifth Disease [aka PV] at my son's school]); I had to drop out of grad school and haven't been able to work or go to school since:
Fibromyalgia (FM);
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (I was practically in a coma the first 3 years);
Heat Intolerance (being in the heat for a couple hours will make me sleep up to 40 hours);
Alpha-Delta Sleep Disorder (don't go into deep stage restorative sleep; common with FM);
Hashimoto's Disease (auto-immune hypothyroidism);
Reactive Airway Disorder (kind of like asthma);
Adrenal Fatigue/Low Cortisol;
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (common with FM);
Orthostatic Hypotension (can't stand still for long periods);
Memory problems;
Difficulty concentrating;
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Wow. You are a bundle of joyous news, aren't you?<snip>
Maybe you should call me "The Angel of Death"? :D
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I'll be nicer than that Siege.
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seige thanks for the input i'll be looking for this in the Miami area... should be ground zero here.. for that stuff...
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seige thanks for the input i'll be looking for this in the Miami area... should be ground zero here.. for that stuff...
Yeah, Bum--you guys take care with that. I agree it will likely show there first. Blech.
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Update (thanks for the heads up, Bum).
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Miami-Dade-Woman-Contracts-Chikungunya-Virus-267559021.html
Two people, including a Miami-Dade County woman, bitten by mosquitoes in Florida have acquired the chikungunya virus, health officials said Thursday, the first cases in the U.S. not contracted during Caribbean travel.
In both cases, they said, a person infected with the virus after visiting the Caribbean was then bitten again by an uninfected mosquito in Florida, which then transmitted the illness further.
Health officials urged residents to prevent mosquito bites, but said there was no cause for alarm.
"There is no broad risk to the health of the general public," said Dr. Celeste Philip, a public health official with the Department of Health.
The infected individuals were described as a 41-year-old woman in Miami-Dade County who began experiencing symptoms on June 10, and a 50-year-old man in Palm Beach County, who first noticed symptoms July 1.
Philip said both are doing well.
State epidemiologist Anna Likos said in order for the virus to be transmitted from an infected person to an uninfected mosquito, they must be bitten within the first week of illness.
Chikungunya was documented in 40 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe before it was first confirmed in the Caribbean late last year. With the latest cases, a total of 82 have now been logged in Florida.
Symptoms typically begin three to seven days after being bitten and include fever and severe joint pain, often in the hands and feet. In severe cases, symptoms can last months and even years.
There is no vaccine, but it rarely kills those infected.
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82! And no concern, OH-K!! Ya RIGHT!
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another update:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/possible-epidemic-the-chikungunya-virus-is-starting-to-spread-in-america
Possible Epidemic? The Chikungunya Virus Is Starting To Spread In America
By Michael Snyder, on July 20th, 2014
Cases of the chikungunya virus are appearing in the United States at a level that is far higher than anything health officials have seen in recent years, and now there are two confirmed cases of people that have not even traveled out of the country getting the virus. That means that the chikungunya virus is starting to spread in America, and once it starts spreading it is really hard to stop. Instead of spreading human to human, this virus actually spreads “person-to-mosquito-to-person”. If you live in an area of the country where there are a lot of mosquitos, you should pay close attention to this article. You do not want to get the chikungunya virus. According to Slate, the name of this virus “comes from a Makonde word meaning ‘that which bends up,’ referring to the contortions sufferers put themselves through due to intense joint pain.” That does not sound fun at all. Fortunately, the U.S. has not really been affected by this disease in recent years, but an epidemic has already been declared in Puerto Rico, and some experts are now saying that it is only a matter of time before we see one in the United States.
From 2006 to 2013, the largest number of cases of the chikungunya virus in the U.S. in a single year was just 65.
But by July 15th of this year there were already 357 reported cases, and health officials are bracing for the worst.
Of course of biggest concern is what just happened in Florida. For the first time, health officials have isolated cases of the chikungunya virus that they know were transmitted locally…
U.S. health officials on Thursday confirmed two locally acquired cases of chikungunya in Florida. In Puerto Rico, the government has declared an epidemic of the mosquito-borne virus, with reports of more than 200 diagnosed cases since June 25 in San Juan and surrounding areas.
On Thursday, the CDC confirmed a 50-year-old male in Palm Beach, Fla. was diagnosed with the virus, and had not recently traveled outside the country. Florida state health officials are also reporting a 41-year-old woman in Miami Dade Country has been diagnosed with locally transmitted chikungunya. The CDC has not yet provided confirmation on the second case. Local transmission occurs when the insect bites a person with the infection and then transmits the virus by biting others.
CONTINUE READING FROM LINK ABOVE
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Thanks for keeping us updated Bum.
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New imported case in Dallas, TX.
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/07/dallas-county-confirms-first-chikungunya-case-in-local-traveler.html/
And North Carolina, and New York. Looks like I'm picking a good time to move to WA. :)
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Thanks for the updates. This is getting outa hand.
( idea, is it maybe Pestilance and such, from Revalations begining?)
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Thanks for the updates. This is getting outa hand.
( idea, is it maybe Pestilance and such, from Revalations begining?)
It's just one more in a very long list of diseases spreading across the globe.
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One more seige? When does one more become some clue to the end? When is one more become too many?
Sorry, I've been reading too much today.
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One more seige? When does one more become some clue to the end? When is one more become too many?
Sorry, I've been reading too much today.
People have been claiming the beginning of the "end times" for millennia with each new illness that comes around. This one isn't even particularly deadly.
But this is the medical section. I'd rather save the eschatological discussions for the religious section. ;)