Chikungunya Has Sickened More Than 10,000 In Puerto Rico

Liz Szabo and Karen Weintraub | USA Today | December 4, 2014

It's an unfamiliar tropical virus with an exotic name that causes painful symptoms and has no known treatment or vaccine. It's spreading in the USA.  And it's not Ebola.

The virus is chikungunya, a mosquito-borne illness whose African name translates roughly as "bent in two" because of the severe joint and muscle pain it causes. Other symptoms include fever, headache, nausea and a rash. Some victims suffer arthritis-like joint pain for months.

...The first chikungunya case in Puerto Rico was reported in May. Since then, health officials there have diagnosed more than 10,000, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The real number of cases is likely to be far larger. Household tests of people who didn't go to the doctor found that 28% of those who didn't go to the doctor also tested positive for the virus, the CDC says...