currentsinbiology: Mosquitoes transmit chikungunya in...

currentsinbiology:

Mosquitoes transmit chikungunya in continental US (Nature News)

Two people have acquired the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus in the continental United States, the state of Florida’s Department of Health announced today. The cases, one in Miami-Dade County and another in Palm Beach County, confirm that the virus has infected US mosquitoes.

Chikungunya is an illness marked mainly by discomfort: a high fever, rashes, and severe joint, back and muscle pain. It is rarely fatal, and most recover within days or weeks. However, joint pain can sometimes persist for months. Chikungunya cannot be transmitted from person to person; it can be contracted only from a mosquito.

The United States is only the latest destination for the globetrotting virus. First described in the 1950s in East Africa, it has spread throughout central and southern Africa, India and Southeast Asia, generally through the mosquito Aedes aegypti. But a mutation that is suspected to have occurred in a 2005–06 outbreak on Réunion Island appears to have allowed it to infect Aedes albopictus, also known as the Asian tiger mosquito. This enabled the virus to spread as far north as Italy in 2007.

The photo is the structure of a Togaviridae family virus and represents the photo of a Chikungunya virus. The structure has a diameter of about 50nm to 70nm. Chikungunya virus consists of a single stranded positive sense RNA.

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