IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology
Threatwatch: Chikungunya virus spreads in the Americas
• newscientist.comChikungunya is rarely lethal, but it is painful and can cause chronic, debilitating joint pain. On reaching Asia, it spread rapidly and made millions ill, as people had no immunity. A few experimental treatments and vaccines exist, but none has yet left the lab.
Two years ago, when the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), a public health agency that works in all countries in the Americas, drew up a plan for Chikungunya's arrival, it warned that the Americas could face the same situation as Asia.