Article/More than 8,000 cases of chikungunya reported in Curacao

[Bas Harts]

Rather amazing, if true. The supposed first case in Curacao was not until roughly July, 2014. Over diagnosis perhaps? Especially considering that most of the time since the first report consisted of dry season.

They diagnose it without a blood test in most cases..... So if you dont want to go work you go to your doctor and tell him the right symptoms and you have some paid days off.

 

[jlevine]

Please see my related post. This is quite large.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...nya-cases-top-18-000-google-page-ranking.html

 

[midwesblues]

Wow. This is pretty disconcerting. Wondering if I should cancel my trip in March with my college age son and just eat the cost of the flights. Any thoughts?

 

[Kharon]

One good thing about this disease is that it will peak and then burn out. As the population of immune people goes up the chance of a mosquito biting an infected person eventually drops to at or very near zero. At that point the virus dies out.

I wouldn't (am not going to) cancel any trips. A couple of years back Bonaire experienced very unusual weather - heavy daily rain from September to January. The mosquito population exploded. I was there for two weeks in January. Having prepared 2 sets of clothes with Sawyer's Permethrin and using Sawyer's 20% Picaridin I didn't get bit. People staying at the same place as I looked like they had chicken pox or measles. Better living through chemistry.

I'm going to St. John soon, am in the process of planning a trip to Coco View (Roatan) and Glover's Atol (Belize), and will continue to go to Bonaire. It's not like I'm all that safe at home (Upstate NY). Lyme is rampant, equine enchephalitis, West Nile, and guess what Chikungunya on Long Island. Planet warming is spreading the "tropical hot zone" ever wider. Sea level rise is probably the least of our problems.

 

[jlevine]

I myself would not cancel a trip over this. I posted these articles mostly to encourage reasonable caution. For the occasional tourist, the risk of infection is much lower. The biggest problem I have in the Caribbean are the no-see-ums. DEET will help keep these and other things away. Standing water is the biggest problem for mosquito-borne diseases. Most of the places I've stayed at do a good job of keeping these under control.

 

[daniel1948]

Wow. This is pretty disconcerting. Wondering if I should cancel my trip in March with my college age son and just eat the cost of the flights. Any thoughts?

I would not.

There are many things to be afraid of, and it's easy to fixate on the wrong ones. Consider this: All the time you are diving on some Caribbean island, you are not at home driving your car. Idiot drivers talking on cell phones are probably more dangerous than mosquitos (or sharks). Take reasonable precautions as described by other posters above and enjoy the trip.

And drive safely to the airport, because that's really the most dangerous part of your vacation.

 

[lmorin]

The following concerns Bonaire and is from a document called "Report Chikungunya Dutch Caribean week 45, 2014.pdf" dated Nov. 3, 2014. This document can be found HERE. It covers the period from Jan. 1, 2013, to Nov. 3, 2014.

Bonaire
• At the end of July and in August 2014, 8 chikungunya cases were laboratory confirmed. Three of these cases were likely autochthonous [indigenously acquired] and five cases probably contracted the disease outside Bonaire.
• No significant increase in undifferentiated fever has been observed in the syndromic surveillance

Another document from the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization that was updated on Nov. 21, 2014, can be found HERE. It details the information about the disease spread in all the Americas. Note that the BES islands are not included in this table. For what it is worth, this table shows Curacao as having had a total of 1,654 suspected cases and 345 confirmed cases of chikungunya.