Health author­i­ties in Samar may yet face another round of chikun­gunya fever virus infec­tion in Samar, as some 500 Vil­lar­real folks have been affected, which ren­dered the vic­tims unpro­duc­tive for a week.

Dr. Anto­nio Tira­zona, Depart­ment of Health (DOH) Rep­re­sen­ta­tive in Samar, reported this sit­u­a­tion dur­ing the first Provin­cial Dis­as­ter Risk Reduc­tion Coun­cil (PDRRC) on 28 Jan­u­ary 2013. He declared that they have received reports that chikun­gunya virus infec­tion has threat­ened the munic­i­pal­i­ties of Daram, an island town, Jiabong, Gan­dara, and the city of Catbalogan.

Chikun­gunya fever is a viral dis­ease trans­mit­ted to humans by the bite of infected mos­qui­toes (Aedes aegypti). Symp­toms appear in peo­ple on aver­age three to seven days after being bit­ten by an infected mos­quito. The virus causes high fever and severe joint pain. It can also cause headache, mus­cle pain, and rashes. “This is not fatal, but it can make peo­ple lose work for a num­ber of days and depletes the resources of the com­mu­nity affected,” he explained. “In Vil­lar­real, the Local Gov­ern­ment Unit (LGU) ran out of med­i­cines that they asked for from the provin­cial gov­ern­ment. The Research Insti­tute of Trop­i­cal Med­i­cine (RITM) is now exam­in­ing the blood sam­ples taken from the patients in Daram,” he said.

DOH-Samar warned the pub­lic about chikun­gunya virus infec­tion. The doc­tor said that infected per­sons should be pro­tected from fur­ther mos­quito expo­sure dur­ing the first few days of ill­ness so they can­not con­tribute to the trans­mis­sion cycle. The usual prac­tices of hygiene and clean­li­ness are rec­om­mended to fight chikun­gunya fever, which orig­i­nated from Africa. “I am here to seek your help to dis­sem­i­nate the infor­ma­tion in your com­mu­ni­ties so that, together, we can pre­pare to avoid this dis­as­ter,” the doc­tor said.

The full arti­cle may be accessed at http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20130128.1518853
(ProMED 1/28/2013)

Over 250 indi­vid­u­als in Vil­lareal town in Samar (East­ern Visayas region) are believed to have been afflicted with chikun­gunya, a mosquito-borne viral dis­ease with symp­toms sim­i­lar to those of dengue fever.

The Depart­ment of Health (DoH) in East­ern Visayas has deployed Regional Pre­ven­tion and Con­trol Pro­gram (RPCP) teams to inves­ti­gate the spread of the dis­ease in Vil­lareal as well as in Catar­man, North­ern Samar, and San Juan, South­ern Leyte, where cases were also reported early the week of 7 Jan­u­ary 2013.

Rod­er­ick Boyd S. Cerro, DoH-8 regional sen­tinel nurse, said 235 peo­ple in Barangay Ban­quil and 28 in Guintar­can Island in Samar showed symp­toms of the dis­ease. “The dis­ease was reported by the munic­i­pal health office in Novem­ber 2012. They raised an alarm over the quick spread of the dis­ease in Decem­ber 2012 and early Jan­u­ary 2013,” he said. He said 12 of the 28 cases reported in Guintar­can Island were con­firmed to be chikun­gunya virus infec­tions based on lab­o­ra­tory results from the Regional Insti­tute for Trop­i­cal Med­i­cine (RITM).

Chikun­gunya, a dengue-like dis­ease, has also been reported in North­ern Min­danao, Ilo­cos, Cagayan Val­ley, National Cap­i­tal Region, Cal­abar­zon, Bicol, West­ern Visayas, Davao and Caraga. Mr. Cerro said chikun­gunya causes fever and a skin rash sim­i­lar to dengue and mostly affects adults. Accord­ing to the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO), chikun­gunya is a viral dis­ease spread by mos­qui­toes that causes fever and severe joint pain. Its symp­toms include mus­cle pain, headache, nau­sea, fatigue and rashes. Signs and symp­toms include an abrupt onset of fever, fre­quently accom­pa­nied by joint pain. Ill­ness usu­ally occurs 4–8 days after a mos­quito bite and can range from 2–12 days. “There is no cure for the dis­ease, and treat­ment is focused on reliev­ing the symp­toms. Although it is not as deadly as dengue, patients are advised to seek imme­di­ate med­ical help,” Mr. Cerro said.

The full arti­cle may be accessed at http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20130113.1494945
(ProMED 1/13/2013)

At least 19 vil­lagers fell ill of sus­pected chikun­gunya fever in the vil­lages of San Juan and San Vicente in Santo Domingo town in Albay in Novem­ber 2012, the provin­cial health office (PHO) reported.

Chikun­gunya fever is sim­i­lar to dengue but is milder in form and with­out bleed­ing. Symp­toms include on-and-off fever, rashes, and mus­cle and body pains.

The 19 cases brought to at least 100 the num­ber of peo­ple who had been stricken by this other forms of mosquito-borne dis­ease toward the last quar­ter of 2012, records from the PHO showed.

Dr. Luis Men­doza, Albay provin­cial health offi­cer, said he and a team from the provin­cial epi­demi­ol­ogy office went to Santo Domingo on 22 Decem­ber 2012 to val­i­date reports that 18 vil­lagers from Barangay San Juan and one vil­lager in San Vicente got sick of chikun­gunya virus infec­tions. Men­doza said they brought along med­i­cines to treat the patients who fell ill with chikun­gunya fever. The team noted that those who fell ill showed influenza-like symp­toms with rashes and joint pains on the extrem­i­ties, clin­i­cal symp­toms of chikun­gunya virus infections.

Men­doza said the sus­pected chikun­gunya cases occurred in Novem­ber 2012, and the vic­tims’ ages range from 4–67 years old. Men­doza said most of the sus­pected vic­tims did not seek med­ical con­sul­ta­tion because they thought they only had flu.

The vil­lages of San Juan and San Vicente are 3 km [2 miles] away from the town proper.

Albay Gov­er­nor Joey Sal­ceda on 24 Decem­ber 2012 directed the provin­cial health office to closely coor­di­nate with the Santo Domingo munic­i­pal health office and involve the com­mu­nity in imple­ment­ing mea­sures to stop the spread of the dis­ease by elim­i­nat­ing breed­ing places for mosquitoes.

The PHO epi­demi­ol­ogy sur­veil­lance team has started gath­er­ing spec­i­mens for lab­o­ra­tory exam­i­na­tion from the patients, and these will be sent to the Depart­ment of Health in Bicol for analy­sis, he said.

In Sep­tem­ber 2012, chikun­gunya fever also afflicted at least 83 res­i­dents of Barangay San Ramon on Batan Island, Rapu-Rapu, Albay. The Rapu-Rapu munic­i­pal health office reported that cases of the mosquito-borne dis­ease were ini­tially reported as 70 cases but surged to 83 by the end of Sep­tem­ber 2012.
(ProMED 12/26/2012)