Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

any news on this chick v virus in Jamaica ?

Country forums / Caribbean

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/CHIKV-outbreak-in-region-not-slowing-down_17908683

The virus is chikungunya. ("Chicken-gun-ya")

I looked at reports since October. In the last three years, there have been 1580 suspected and 87 confirmed cases in Jamaica. (The number of cases is probably seriously under reported.) There have been deaths, but these appear to be associated with the victim already having some other medical problem. As far as I can tell, the outbreak is not regional--there is risk throughout the island.

Last October, Jamaica declared a state of emergency, and haas embarked on an education program--one problem has been a belief that the disease is not spread by mosquitoes. However, there has been criticism of the country's failure to fully implement an education & prevention program.

Bottom line--do all that stuff to prevent mosquito bites.

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