Just days after the Brazil Ministry of Health reported their first locally acquired chikungunya cases in the northern region of Amapa, authorities in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia confirmed Friday five cases of endemic Chikungunya virus, according to a Fox Latino report Friday.
The chikungunya patients live in the town of Feira de Santana, at some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Salvador, capital of Bahia. This brings the total of locally acquired cases to seven in Brazil.
Health officials warn the public of stagnant water where the mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti, of chikungunya and dengue fever breed.
Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. It can cause high fever, join and muscle pain, and headache. Chikungunya does not often result in death, but the joint pain may last for months or years and may become a cause of chronic pain and disability. There is no specific treatment for chikungunya infection, nor any vaccine to prevent it. Pending the development of a new vaccine, the only effective means of prevention is to protect individuals against mosquito bites.
The number of indigenous chikungunya cases in the Americas has risen past 700,000 since the mosquito virus was first found on the island of St. Martin in the Caribbean in Dec. 2013. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page
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