The Brazilian Health Ministry reported Tuesday the first locally acquired, or indigenous chikungunya cases in Oiapoque municipality in the northern region of Amapa, bordering French Guiana (which has seen some 6,000 suspected and confirmed cases since the arrival of chikungunya in the Western hemisphere in December), according to an AFP report Tuesday.
At least two people have been identified of contracting the mosquito borne illness with no recent travel abroad.
So I ask, Is this the beginning of something bigger on the horizon?
The chikungunya virus is in the mosquito population, at least to some extent, based on the above report. The mosquito vector for chikungunya, the Aedes mosquito, is the same as for dengue fever, a viral illness that affected 1.4 million Brazilians in 2013 and over a half-million people this year to date.
In addition, Brazil have a population naive to the chikungunya virus. So with these factors of the appropriate vector and susceptible population, are we seeing the beginning of something big in the South American country?
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