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Sunday, June 15, 2014
Guyana health authorities say they have sent more than 1,000 samples to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to be tested for the chikungunya virus that has already affected several Caribbean countries. The Ministry of Health said that it expects the results of the tests on Monday and Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran said that notwithstanding the results they have people in the fields and they are doing our clinical evaluation.
They said that people with symptoms of the disease are predominantly from Berbice, Region Six are and 15 cases have been confirmed to date.
Chikungunya is an illness caused by the aedes aegypti mosquito. The most common symptoms are fever and joint pain as well as headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rash.
MEANWHILE
Suriname records first case of chikungunya virus
Suriname has recorded its first case of the mosquito transmitted chikungunya virus and blamed a visitor from St. Maarten for introducing the virus.
Several Caribbean countries have reported cases of chikungunya, a viral disease, carried mainly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that causes a dengue-like sickness.
Symptoms include a sudden high fever, severe pain in the wrists, ankles or knuckles, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and rash. Joint pain and stiffness are more common with chikungunya than with dengue. The symptoms appear between four to seven days after the bite of an infected mosquito. The majority of clinical signs and symptoms last three to 10 days, but joint pain may persist longer. Severe cases requiring hospitalisation are rare.
The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) said it is working closely with the regional countries after the region recorded its first ever case of chikungunya in December last year.
The Bureau for Public Health (BOG) said that a Paramaribo based man was found with symptoms of the illness upon his return from St, Maarten. The 45-year-old man was diagnosed positive in May and kept for observation in a local hospital. It said that so far 19 suspected cases have been investigated, but the St. Maarten visitor has been the only one found infected by the virus.
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