PSA: Chikungunya virus in Guadalajara

[Dr.Santiago]

http://www.informador.mx/jalisco/2015/605682/6/la-ssj-reporta-brote-de-chikungunya-en-guadalajara.htm

Chikungunya virus produces "breakbone" fever. Please be aware.

[snowyco]

Chikungunya Virus: Nasty stuff...**

It is transmitted by the same urban fresh-water-loving mosquitoes as Dengue Virus: Aedes Aegypti and Aedes Albopictus.

The more common Aedes Aegypti is most active in the mornings, (some in the evening, but not in the middle of the night), likes to bite us on our exposed feet, ankles, and lower legs, and can breed in as little as 1 tablespoon of fresh standing water - like the little bit of water in take-home styrofoam food cartons, old tires, wash basins, old flower pots and flower pot watering dishes, pet water dishes, and even floor drains - as long as the water persists for at least 7 days. They lay their eggs at the edge of the water surface, so even if the water dries out, the eggs remain viable, waiting for the next rain - clinging to the side of the dog dish or drain pipe.

Background on why you can trust this information: My wife (a virologist studying Flaviviruses since 1983) just got back from the latest big Chikungunya virus scientific Tropical Disease meeting in Rockville MD, with the latest information. She reports that while most patients will suffer no symptoms or only mild cold/flu-like symptoms -

** BUT 1 in 20 infected people (about 5%) will suffer YEARS of ongoing nasty joint pains, long after the Chikungunya virus has left their system...

The only way to stop Dengue and Chikungunya virus is to stop mosquito breeding ... either eliminate their breeding sites or treat them with Abate dunks ... or maintain a population of mosquito eating fish in the standing water.

Note that "bone break fever" is actually Dengue Fever (not what the good doctor describes above), and Dengue has been around for 1.000's of years - while Chikungunya Virus has just recently appeared as a tropical disease in the last few years.

More details on Dengue and Chikungunya fever treatments, prevention of and protection from both Chikungunya and Dengue, and testing and diagnoses for both ... can be found at:

http://www.yucatanliving.com/health/everything-about-dengue-fever.htm

and Dengue Fact Sheet

These are Dengue articles, but since the same mosquitoes carry both viruses, and since there are no effective treatments for either Dengue or Chikungunya infections - only treatment for relief of symptoms - the same general information for protection, for stopping mosquito (vector) breeding, and treatments applies to both viruses.

[snowyco]

** " ... most patients will suffer no symptoms or only mild cold/flu-like symptoms - "

This characteristic that most people infected with Chikungunya virus show no symptoms or only minor cold-like achy joints symptoms is REALLY IMPORTANT.



This means that the 90% of infected people (without troubling symptoms) go undiagnosed , they go unnoticed ... go uncounted ...
which means that the 3 diagnosed/reported cases in Guadalajara are likely at least 30 cases in reality ...
and
the undiagnosed, low or no symptom infected persons are carriers of the Chikungunya virus for
~ at least 10 days to 2 weeks ~ so other female Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes that bite these infected virus-carrier people, can then also become infected, carrying the virus to our friends, our families, and our neighbors .... creating an ongoing chain of Chikungunya infections.

Those newly infected Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes ... flying rapidly (tough to kill) ... silently ... biting unnoticed by using anesthetic to keep us from noticing during their blood-meal extraction from us .... then can live up to 60 days ... flying up to 100 meters ... infecting others.

http://yucalandia.com/science-health-issues/dengue-what-to-do/

This explains how Chikungunya has moved ~ uncontrolled ~ so rapidly from Asia ... to Southern France ... to the Yucatan Peninsula (Chetumal, Q. Roo) with 100's of new cases in Campeche ... now ... to Jalisco, Guadalajara ...

The years on ongoing nasty joint pains from Chikungunya infections for 1 in 20 cases is also troubling.

This is all very important, because when someone is infected with Chikungunya (or Dengue) virus, even with low-mild symptoms, we really should carefully spray their home/living environment, to kill all Aedes Aegypti or Albopictus mosquitoes in their home - to stop the human from infecting other mosquitoes ... breaking the disease transmission chain.

Aedes Aegypti and Albopictus mosquitoes love to hide in our homes - down low - under desks, under furniture, resting in dark cool places to later come out an bite us in the mornings ... or they rest on the ceiling ... or they love to rest in our clothes closets, because the small body-stink chemicals that remain on our clothes is a primary attractant for them.

(Yes, the heavily perfumed detergents we use blinds our noses to the remaining body-odor residual smells ... unless you add a little bleach to the load, that destroys the stink-molecules.)

This means to focus your home-spraying on clothes closets (vigorously move the clothes around to get the spray in between the clothing), spray under furniture and low places, and spray around the ceilings.... (the opposite of our typical spraying patterns).

Here's an image of the Aedes Aegypti female mosquito (the one that needs blood meals), Note her distinctively black-and-white banded legs and bodies. ... Further note that as they age, A. Ae mosquitoes colors fade, and they start to look a bit drab and brownish - and the banding is not as obvious>

[Natasha]

And this is only one of the reasons we love and encourage all the swallows who want to build nests on our house, upper and lower floors, to feel free to do so. What's a little bird poop when the reward is NO mosquitos anywhere in our vicinty?

Plus we get to watch their beautiful flights, swooping and soaring as they catch those little critters on the wing.....