First Chikungunya Case Confirmed In West Virginia
The West Virginia Department for Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health on Tuesday confirmed the state's first case of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne infection that has been reported in more than a dozen states and U.S. territories this year.
Dr. Letitia Tierney, state health officer and commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health, said last week that the agency could not say where the patient lived until the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed the case. An arbovirus test was sent to the CDC on June 18 and, although the case is now confirmed, the agency has chosen not to specify where the patient is located, except to note that it’s in Western West Virginia. This is to protect the identity of the patient, according to DHHR spokeswoman Allison Adler.
A communications representative for the Cabell-Huntington Health Department declined to comment and a representative from the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, based in Parkersburg, could not be reached for comment.
According to Tierney, chikungunya sufferers can remain asymptomatic for three to seven days after infection, and a person traveling abroad might not realize they're sick until they have returned home. "The individual infected with chikungunya traveled from Western West Virginia to Haiti and became symptomatic upon return to the United States," Tierney said.
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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140701/GZ01/140709954/1419
