Chikungunya Virus now confirmed in Jamaica - Female Traveller From Florida via Puerto Rico and How to fight Chic-V

“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 27^th, 2014 that they'd detected their first case of the Chikungunya Virus in Suriname on Saturday June 7^th 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 14^th, 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.