25 cases in Florida
US health officials are on high alert as a mosquito-borne virus that has struck 15 of the US states. The virus called chikungunya causes a high fever that last days. 25 cases have been reported in Florida alone. There is no vaccine for the virus.
Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Preventive Medicine says:
This is not a fatal infection; it’s just a miserable infection. Chikungunya fever will last for three, four, five day. You’re miserable. Then you’ll get better. We can treat you symptomatically.
So far, we have no evidence that there are U.S.-bred mosquitoes that have become infected