New Year's resolution: get to know Chikungunya.

Happy New Year to all of our NEHA family and friends! It is the start of a new year and hopefully a short winter. I hope you had a safe and happy holiday season with family and friends. Winter makes us think of snow skiing, sledding, and ice skating, but it also makes us yearn for spring and warm weather. Winter seems to last forever when you wish for sunshine and warm breezes. Many of you will be vacationing in warmer climates during the winter and early spring. As an environmental health professional, I would like to advise you of a new mosquito-borne viral disease that has been prevalent in the Caribbean islands since late 2013 and has since migrated to the U.S. Chikungunya is a viral disease that is transmitted to humans by the bites of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. The virus has an extrinsic incubation period of approximately 10 days in the mosquito vector. Symptoms usually begin 3–7 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito but onset can take up to 12 days. Distinguishing symptoms for this disease are fever and severe joint pain. Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue, and rash. The joint pain is often very debilitating and usually lasts for a few days or may be prolonged to a period of weeks or months. The name “chikungunya” is derived from a word in the Kimakonde language meaning “to become contorted” and describes the stooped appearance of sufferers with joint pain (arthralgia). The disease shares some clinical signs with dengue and can be misdiagnosed in areas where dengue is common. Treatment is focused on relieving the symptoms as no cure exists for the disease. Doctors advise patients to get plenty of rest, drink suffi cient fl uids to prevent dehydration, and to take medicinal products such as ibuprofen, naproxen, acetaminophen, or paracetamol to relieve fever and pain.