Saturday, September 20, 2014

Number of Endemic Chikungunya Infections in Brazil Rises to 7

9/20/2014


SAO PAULO – The government of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia confirmed on Friday five cases of endemic Chikungunya virus, raising to seven the number of people who have been infected by the virus without leaving the country.

The patients whose diagnoses were confirmed live in the town of Feira de Santana, at some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Salvador, capital of Bahia.

According to the superintendent of health security and protection, Alcina Andrade, the people infected with the Chikungunya virus in Feira de Santana “are being accompanied to a laboratory but need not be admitted” to a hospital.

On Tuesday, the Amapa state government confirmed the first two endemic cases of the disease in Brazil and adopted a series of measures to keep the virus from spreading.

After learning of the five new cases in Bahia, the state health department warned citizens to stay away from stagnant water where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes tend to swarm and which carry both the dengue virus as well as Chikungunya, while announcing greater control over areas that are possible breeding grounds.

The department also noted that suspected cases must be reported within 24 hours after the first symptoms appear.

Since January, when Brazilian authorities announced a contingency plan following the appearance of native cases of the disease in several countries of the Americas, 44 cases of Chikungunya were recorded in Brazil, 37 of which were patients who had been infected in other countries.


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