Chikungunya Virus Still a Threat in Europe

Today the health experts who first studied the outbreak of Chikungunya have confirmed that the world has not seen the last of this disease. If nothing is done to check the population of mosquitoes and other factors causing this disease, it might as well spread all across the U.S.A and the European Union.

The outbreak of Chikungunya in Emilia-Romagna region of north eastern Italy was confirmed in the late August this year. Soon later, a panel of researchers and analysts have been finding out the potential damage that can be caused by this disease. They have recently in October disclosed the report, informing WHO and the world that the potential mass outbreak is possible by the next spring in 2008 if nothing is done to control it immediately, since the mosquitoes eggs hatch by then.

Though as we here at chikungunia.com already know that this disease is not life threatening, but fatigue or pain in the joints can be disturbing your well being for anywhere from several weeks to months. There is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for the illness, which is caused by an Alphavirus.

Also some cases have been found in the United States also, mostly from visitors to Italy and other Asian countries. But the local health authorities there believe that the outbreak there is not a threat due to the lifestyle there. Mostly air-conditioned buildings, cars and other limited exposure mean that the contact with the mosquitoes is limited.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 9:56 am and is filed under Chikungunya Illness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.