Chikungunya in EUROPE!!!

The World Health Organization ( WHO ) encourages all countries to create and Maintain Their capacity to detect cases of Chikungunya fever , and have Warned That in Europe Outbreaks of infectious disease can be detected Past .

Chikungunya fever is a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes for Which at present there is no specific treatment and , in Addition to fever and severe joint pain , other symptoms causes muscle aches : such as , headaches , nausea , fatigue and rash .

Although It is given the disease in Africa , Asia and the Indian subcontinent , the UN agency Recalled That in recent Decades Have spread the disease vectors to country clubs in America and Europe.

Chikungunya means in one of the dialects spoken in Tanzania "bend" because those who are infected are bent by the pain experienced in the joints. The origin of this infection is as exotic as its name announces, however, it has gone from being a typical disease of the African continent an increasingly frequent phenomenon in Latin America. In Italy and France it has also come from the expansion of Asian tiger mosquito, responsible for transmitting the virus to their bite.

So far in Spain there had been only imported cases of tourists who had been infected during trips to countries where the disease is endemic. But yesterday, for the first time, the Center for Disease Control in Europe (ECDC) confirmed the first indigenous case in our country.

The first concerned who has contracted the virus in Spain is a 60-year-old resident in the Valencian town of Gandia, already recovered. The patient began to feel the symptoms of the disease last July 7 in France during a trip he undertook three days earlier. The incubation period since the mosquito bite occurs until the first symptoms between 4 and 7 days manifest themselves, so one could get sick before leaving on a trip, according to European health authorities. After this case, both in Spain and France have extreme controls to detect the disease.

The Valencian government announced in late July the case, but until yesterday had not been officially documented the case. The European CDC has published an extensive report which recognizes this infection as the first case of infection in Spain. "It is highly unlikely that infection occurred in France," explains CDC who has asked health authorities to step up vigilance against the emergence of a possible outbreak.

This virus of African origin is not spread by person to person contact. To collapse just suffer the bite of an infected mosquitado tiger. And for an outbreak began in the Valencian community, such as common mosquito on the Mediterranean coast would only bite someone infected and continue to transmit the disease with new bites.

Gandia patient has been the first, but probably will not be or have not been the only one. Services of the Valencian Generalitat have not identified new cases since last July 7 "and there are no suspected cases to be confirmed," sources said Health Department. Although it could have infected people who have gone unnoticed. Chikungunya symptoms resemble the flu (fever, nausea, muscle and joint pain ...) and it is possible that some affected have not come to an emergency department.

Two factors increase the risk of tropical diseases settle in Europe. One is the increase in tourism to exotic destinations, but especially that most of these translocations occur during the Northern Hemisphere summer, when mosquitoes that transmit it are more active. Also the dreaded climate change is favoring the arrival of tropical insects to colder latitudes.