Virus Sickens Thousands In China, But Is This COVID All Over Again?
Any of us who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this decade already know that it's not something we'd ever want to go through again.
It doesn't matter how badly you might have been ill, or even if you got sick at all during those three years, the simple fact that life was disrupted on such an immense scale due to social distancing, quarantines, masking, event cancellations, and store closures is enough to make absolutely no one want to ever see a repeat of anything similar.
CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS IS NOT AT ALL LIKE COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic began in China during December, 2019, and now there are new rumblings of another virus that's already sickened thousands across Southern China and is spreading just as rapidly.
Although the bad news is certainly that so many people living in China are becoming ill, the good news is that the virus that's making them sick will not be diffusing around the entire planet within a few months like COVID did.
The chikungunya (chi·kuhn·GOO·nyuh) virus is carried by mosquitos and causes a fever in humans that has the same namesake. The virus is transmitted through bites from a specific variety of the insect - the Aedes mosquito (particularly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus), that are infected.
CHIKUNGUNYA FEVER CAN HAPPEN IN MANY PLACES AROUND THE WORLD
Chikungunya fever is rarely fatal, but it can cause severe joint pain and other symptoms, such as fever, headache, muscle pain, nausea, fatigue, and rash.
Currently, there are no specific treatments or vaccines designed to cure or prevent chikungunya fever, although scientists are reportedly hard at work on them.
While the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquito are more prevalent in Sotheast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, they are also found in parts of Europe and North America, including states like California, Florida, and Texas.
That means that although the chikungunya pathogen the insects carry is not airborne and cannot be as easily spread like COVID-19 through things like mucosal emissions and person-to-person contact, it is possible for Aedes mosquito populations to become infected in any place they inhabit around the world and carry the illness to humans.
So while there are currently no outbreaks of the chikungunya virus in the U.S., it is possible for people to become infected if they live or visit any place where the insects are present and are carrying the virus.
To protect yourself, experts say you should always follow the basic rules for preventing all mosquito bites, like applying a safe and effective repellent and wearing appropriate clothing.
Thus far, the Chinese government says about 7,000 people have been infected with the chikungunya virus, mostly around the city of Foshan, which was recently hit by flooding that has caused a large amount of standing water where mosquitos can rapidly breed.
THE CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS HAS BEEN SICKENING PEOPLE FOR OVER 70 YEARS
Evidence of the chikungunya virus dates back to 1952, when an outbreak in Tanzania also made thousands of people ill. The name of the virus is derived from a Makonde word that means, “that which bends upward,” due to the extreme joint pain associated with chikungunya fever.
Although millions of people in the Americas are suspected to have contracted the virus since the turn of the century, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention report there was an average of only 28 cases of chikungunya fever annually in the United States between 2006 and 2013.
The primary concern for contracting the illness among North American residents are in those who are returning from travel in parts of the world where the virus and the insects which spread it are much more abundant.
For now, the chikungunya virus has not reached endemic levels in North America, let alone epidemic or pandemic proportions. However, health officials are closely monitoring outbreaks worldwide, as well as case numbers in the U.S.
So there's no need to panic, the people of Earth are not currently facing a sequel to the health and social horror show that was the COVID-19 pandemic...but it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do what you can to keep the mosquitos from biting you anyway, just to be on the safe side.