“This
does not indicate local spread of the virus and we continue to monitor persons
living in and around areas visited by the individual. We have heightened our
vector control activities to reduce the possibility of local spread”
Chief Medical Officer,
Dr. Kevin Harvey speaking about the discovery of persons infected with the
Chikungunya Virus
Look
like we’ve got another Storm brewing in the Health Sector and the Doctors of
Jamaica have been caught napping on the now confirmed case of the Chikungunya
Virus as stated in “It is
chikungunya!”, published Friday, July 18, 2014, The Jamaica Observer.
And
as per usual, the Government of Jamaica has gone into Damage Control as stated
in “Health
Ministry Investigates Suspected Imported Chikungunya Case”, published July 16,
2014 By Stephanie Shaw Smith, Manager, Public Relations & Communication,
Ministry of Health, The Jamaica Information
Service.
Chikungunya
Virus is now in Jamaica, thanks to a Jamaican literally carrying it back in her
blood without declaring the fact at
Immigration as stated in “Jamaica
has first suspected Chikungunya case”, published Tuesday, July 15, 2014
7:43 PM, The Jamaica Observer.
Jamaica
has now confirmed results from the tests being done by CARPHA (Caribbean Public
Health Agency) on blood samples taken from a private Laboratory that treated
the person as stated in “Country
to know by weekend if suspected case is chikungunya”, published Thursday,
July 17, 2014 BY ANIKA RICHARDS
Observer staff reporter, The
Jamaica Observer.
Strangely
enough, the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kevin Harvey is refusing to mention the
name of the Private Laboratory, the Name of the person or even the name of the
Small Island the person came from. Yet, despite this, the Ministry of Health
has declared themselves prepared for any eventuality as stated in “Ministry Of
Health Prepares For Battle With Chikungunya Virus”, Published Wednesday
July 16, 2014, by Davion Smith, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Jamaica’s Strange Veil
of Secrecy – Female Traveller From Florida via Puerto Rico
My
usual source who works at a Call Center with whom I communicate with has told
me that the person travelled to Puerto Rico, where the Chikungunya Virus has
now infected some 100 persons as stated in “Two
Contract Mosquito-Borne Chikungunya Virus in Florida”, published July 17,
2014 7:52 p.m. ET By ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES, Wall
Street Journal. Then Florida and was infected there while visiting
relatives. The person is also a female but for reasons of confidentiality I
cannot print her name or her address.
Florida
is known to have the Chikungunya Virus as stated in “It's
Here: First Local Chikungunya Cases in Florida”, published 18-7-2014 BY
MAGGIE FOX, NBC News and “Chikungunya
Virus Arrives in US With Florida Cases”, published 00:22 | 07/18/2014, ABC News so my sources links are most likely
correct. My Source who works in a Call Center says a call placed at her Center
was from the person calling 114 to check the location of the nearest private
Doctor in the Portmore area. She eventually supplied her with a list of Private
Clinics in the Kingston and St. Andrew Area before she then hung up.
This
is in stark contrast to Suriname’s Deputy Director of BOG (Bureau of Public
Health), Dr. Maureen Van Dijk-Wijngaarde, who had confirmed on Friday June 27th,
2014 that they'd detected their first case of the Chikungunya Virus in Suriname
on Saturday June 7th 2014 as stated in “Jamaica on
high alert for chikungunya virus”, published Friday June 27, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner.
The
rather open BOG declared that the man was a returning vacationer from St.
Martin, with a woman the week before returning from Guyana also being confirmed
as a carrier of the Virus. The weeks that followed have seen a steady trickle
of infected persons, as really and truly, it’s pointless to quarantine someone
with a disease you can’t treat that‘s spread via the Aedes aegypti Mosquito, whose bite you cannot control unless you
could eliminate them all, a near impossible task.
Like
the rest of us in the 28 islands that have reported cases of the Chikungunya
Virus, the people of Suriname have no known vaccine and no natural resistance
to the virus among the members of their population. Those places are:
1.
Anguilla
2.
Antigua and Barbuda
3.
Aruba
4.
Barbados
5.
British Virgin Islands
6.
Cayman Islands
7.
Cuba
8.
Dominica
9.
Dominican Republic
10.
French Guiana
11.
Grenada
12.
Guadeloupe
13.
Guyana
14.
Haiti
15.
Martinique
16.
Puerto Rico
17.
Saint Maarten
18.
St Bathelemy
19.
St Kitts and Nevis
20.
St Lucia
21.
St Martin
22.
St Vincent and the Grenadines
23.
Suriname
24.
The Bahamas
25.
Trinidad and Tobago
26.
Turks and Caicos Islands
27.
US Virgin Islands
28.
Venezuela
It’s
new to their territory, to quote CARPHA's Director, James Hospedales: “Chikungunya
is a new virus for Suriname. Since there is no resistance as yet, everyone here
is vulnerable. Therefore, in the coming months, we may expect thousands to be
infected by the virus”.
No Known Vaccine and
Arthritic-like after-effects – Water and exercise an excellent cure
That
right; no know vaccine!
We
here in Jamaica will have to all get
sick eventually in order to develope any kind of resistance to the effects of
the Virus. But that might not be a good idea; the symptoms and after-effects of
the Chikungunya Virus, if you survive an infection are a lot like Dengue as I'd
pointed out in my earlier blog article
entitled “Ministry
of Health gearing up for Chikungunya Virus Epidemic - Aedes aegypti Mosquito
loves the French as it Island-Hops to Jamaica”.
The
Symptoms of the Chikungunya Virus after being bitten by an infected Aedes aegypti Mosquito look Dengue-ish:
1.
Headache
2.
High fever
3.
Joint pain
4.
Muscle pain
5.
Rash
Where
it differs is that the Joint pain is permanent even after you’ve recovered. The
Rash isn’t as bad as it sounds, occurring in only 50% of persons after 5 to 6
days of initial Fever Symptoms.
In
other words, you’ll have to live with arthritic-esque hot-headed symptoms of
painful knees and high fever with a rash for quite a few months or years
afterwards, albeit lots of walking and exercise and changing your diet to a powdered
liquid diet consisting of Lasco Chocolate Milk and less salt as explained in my
blog article
entitled “Tohoku
University in Japan Studies Powdered Food Diet in Mice – Great for Active
Teenagers and Millennials, not so for Baby Boomers” will actually help you
to heal faster.
How to cure yourself
from Chic-V – Plenty of Water, Ginger, Garlic and Scotch Bonnett Pepper
With
no known Vaccine, the best defense is, ironically, is to get persons infected
so that they can naturally develop their own immunity to the disease. With some
28 countries infected and 5,227 cases confirmed in the Caribbean and Latin
American Region since Monday May July 14th, 2014 and few reported
dead, this is really more of a mini-cyclone in a Teacup than an epidemic, even
if it became one.
The
disease is rarely fatal, with the following twenty one (21) deaths being
recorded as of Friday July 18 2014:
1.
3 in Guadeloupe
2.
3 in Dominica
3.
12 in Martinique
4.
3 in St Martin
Thankfully,
the Hurricane Season has been slow to start and by virtue of the limited
Rainfall, there’s hardly any water around for the Aedes aegypti Mosquito to breed. It’ll make a lot of people sick
and unable to work, but isn’t anything for Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kevin
Harvey to lose sleep over. Especially as according to my usually accurate
source, the girl’s quite interesting, as she’s also a Spanish speaker.
A
few days of a Water based diet to fight off Fever and the coming Dehydration as
described in my blog
article entitled “How
to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - Drink Bottled Water as Dehydration
and Salty Foods makes you lose concentration” and she’ll be right as rain.
What
we’ve really gotta worry about is the
Haitians and other French Nationals who will no doubt still trying to get into
the island illegally, coming with the Chikungunya Virus by the boatload….as the
infection spreads.
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