RFP Staff
♦ While Chikungunya Virus is found in 3 North Carolina counties: Alamance, Buncombe, and Forsythe and is now reported in South Carolina, research teams from the FDA, N.C. State, and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center have joined with the Raleigh Lab Arbovax to develop a Chikungunya Virus vaccine. Word out of Raleigh is that Chikungunya vaccine progress shows promise and may be available to fight the mosquito-born virus sometime in 2015.
With summer heat and humidity on the rise the Carolinas, the carriers of Chikungunya Virus, day-biting mosquitos will become more prevalent. Best advice: wear protective clothing, use repellent, employ screening, don’t allow standing water to gather. Avoid areas with known mosquito infestations.
Although the chikungunya virus is rarely fatal, it is long lasting, quite painful, and debilitating. No known medication exists to prevent infection. The mosquito carrying the virus bites during the daylight hours, making the probability of infection far higher than if the carrier mosquito was nocturnal.
Symptoms of the virus are fever, headache, muscle ache, but the hallmark symptom is joint pain. The word chikungunya means “walking stooped over”. Individuals unfortunate enough to catch the virus may suffer joint pain for many years, so it’s important to avoid the virus altogether.
A previous Rowan Free Press article on Chikungunya virus contains identifying photos of the carrier mosquitos common to Rowan County:
