Caribbean chikungunya virus could hit tourism if it is not controlled

By
Travelmail Reporter

Published:

03:15 EST, 22 May 2014

|
Updated:

06:46 EST, 22 May 2014

A new virus sweeping across the Caribbean, causing sever headaches, a burning fever and joint pain so bad that it is hard to walk, could affect tourism experts have warned.

Hospitals and clinics throughout the Caribbean are seeing thousands of people suffering from the chikungunya virus, which first arrived in the area in December and has rapidly spread through mosquitoes.

Tourism ministers are warning the region needs to work together to combat the illness before it further affects the populations and begins to hit visitors numbers over the summer. There are also fears the virus could spread to the US mainland.

Suffering: Five-year-old Karla Sepulveda displays symptoms of chikungunya fever symptoms in the Dominican Republic

The virus name is derived from an African word that loosely translates
as ‘contorted with pain.’

It has long affected people in Africa and Asia but arrived in the Caribbean on the island of French St Martin in December, most likely brought over by an infected traveller.

While the virus is rarely
fatal it is extremely debilitating.

‘You feel it in your bones, your fingers and your hands. It’s like everything is coming apart,’ said 34-year-old Sahira Francisco as she and her daughter waited for treatment at a hospital in San Cristobal, a town in the southern Dominican Republic that has seen a surge of the cases in recent days.

Holiday hub: The virus has not affected tourism yet, but there are fears that it could if it continues spreading at such a fast pace

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.

So far, there are no signs the virus is keeping visitors away though some Caribbean officials warn it might if it is not controlled. 

‘We need to come together and deal with this disease,’ said Dominica Tourism Minister Ian Douglas. 

As visitors head to the Caribbean for the summer, there are also fears they will bring the virus back to the US and Europe with them

The Pan American Health Organization reports more than 55,000 suspected and confirmed cases since December throughout the islands. It has also reached French Guiana, the first confirmed transmission on the South American mainland.

Sunny hotspot: The Caribbean is a popular destination for summer trips for both American and European travellers

‘It’s building up like a snowball because of the constant movement of people,’ said Jacqueline Medina, a specialist at the Instituto Technologico university in the Dominican Republic, where some hospitals report more than 100 new cases per day.

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 traveller-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.

Dr. Roger Nasci, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said: ‘With the increase in travellers the likelihood that something like this would happen goes up and eventually it did.

‘We ended up with somebody at the right time and the right place infecting mosquitoes.’

Perfect storm: The influx of tourists over the summer could see them carrying the virus home with them, which could particularly affect the US, which has the same species of mosquitoes as the Caribbean to transport the illness

The two species of mosquitoes that spread chikungunya are also found in the southern and eastern United States and the first local transmissions could occur this summer given the large number of American holidaymakers who visit the Caribbean, Nasci said.

Already, the Florida Department of Health has reported at least four imported cases from travellers to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Dominica.

Around the Caribbean, local authorities have been spraying fogs of pesticides and urging people to remove standing pools of water where mosquitoes breed.

There is no vaccine and the only cure is treatment for the pain and fluid loss.

One consolation for those suffering from the illness is that unlike dengue, which has several variants, people only seem to get chikungunya once.

‘The evidence suggests that once you get it and recover, once your immune system clears the virus you are immune for life,’ Nasci said.

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