“The pain…” said Opal Blake as she rubbed her legs, recalling her recent struggle with chikungunya. “Everyone had it.”
Blake is a worker at Greencastle Estate in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. She was one of many across the country whose life was brought to a stop last fall by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV). Blake said she was left unable to bend her legs even to use the bathroom and her young daughter couldn’t walk at all for two days.
According to a study published in 2011 by the Department of Medicine at Mymensingh Medical College hospital in Bangladesh, CHIKV is categorized as an alphavirus that targets joints and muscles, causing extreme pain and an acute fever. It was first documented in Tanzania in 1954 and has continued to linger, spreading from continent to continent. Jamaica's outbreak was the most recent in a long strand of outbreaks seen since 2004.
The study contributes CHIKV’s ability to travel such great distances to the combination of tourists and visitors catching the disease and carrying it back to their own countries and the fact it is transmitted by mosquitos. However, some locals aren’t convinced by the mosquito theory.
“We believe the government is saying that because it’s what they wanted to say,” Duane Swaby said. “I believe it was an airborne disease because it spread so quickly.”
Swaby works as a tour guide, leading jungle walks to and from a local waterfall called Kwame Falls. He said he never got bitten by a mosquito, but he experienced three stages of CHIKV: foot pain, a fever, and a rash. He said the fever was the most serious, but he still has residual pain in his joints.
Blake agreed with Swaby’s perspective. She said her daughter didn’t catch it from breast feeding, so it couldn’t have spread from fluid transfer. She caught it from being in the house, Blake said.
“It was no mosquito,” Blake said. “My standing in front of you talking would be enough for you to get it.”
John Edwards is a Jamaican citizen who owns Bromley, an estate built by his great grandfather who migrated to the country to work as a doctor. Edwards said he was sent to England for schooling at the age of 12, with his eight-year old brother. His brother became an Englishman and remained in the country, but Edwards returned to Jamaica because it was where his culture developed and had become his home.
“The fact is, in Jamaica, we create our own reasons for everything,” Edwards said. “It’s a known fact that it is a mosquito.”
Edwards contributed CHIKV’s ability to spread across the country to the lack of action taken by the Jamaican government and its people when the virus reached the country.
“We were very slow to react in Jamaica,” Edwards said.
Denise Henry, Scientific Officer at Discovery Bay Marina in Mona, Jamaica, said the first cases were reported between May and July of 2014, but it became a major problem in September because no precautions were taken to help prevent the spread of CHIKV.
“When this first started back in May, the government wasn’t taking it very seriously.
“The issue we have is there’s a lot of garbage being dumped...they’re not very conscious of proper disposal and therefore you have breeding grounds for mosquitos.”
Mymensingh’s study specified Andes mosquitos as the carriers of CHIKV and said they breed in clean water, typically rainwater collected in unused or discarded items, such as plastic cups, tires, and coconut shells. Such items are commonly seen across the country, adding to the mosquito population and ability for CHIKV to spread.
Henry said she caught it months after the majority of her family had been infected, with the exception of her father who never caught the virus. She said this was a personal confirmation that the virus could not have been airborne, unless there is an unknown immunity or resistance, but there isn’t factual information to support the idea. She described the CHIKV as making her long-healed shoulder feel like it was dislocated again because the virus attacks old injury sites.
“When I had it, I couldn’t open bottles. I couldn’t open a door. I couldn’t hardly even open the car door. I had to use both hands to put down the hand brake,” Henry said. “I got it pretty badly. It’s a very itchy rash.”
Henry said her symptoms lasted about a week. She felt better for about two weeks before falling into a kind of relapse. She looked to anti-inflammatories and pain medication to help get her cope with the symptoms, but some Jamaicans preferred to use natural remedies.
“We stick to our traditional bush herb. People turn away from traditional herb, but that’s what actually helps,” Swaby said.
He gave the example of papaya juice as a remedy for fever.
Though Swaby’s opinion is a common one among locals, Henry said the natural solution is not always the best one because there are a lot of side effects with natural remedies. She specifically mentioned kola nut (bissy) seeds, which are frequently used as a remedy for poison because they induce vomiting. She said some have used them and passed out because they, and many other Jamaicans, don’t know what the side effects of these or other natural remedies are. Last year, over 85 people died from complications after attempting to treat CHIKV naturally. Cases of someone dying from the disease are extremely rare, she said.
By now, CHIKV has swept through the entirety of Jamaica, so concern has shifted to populations that have yet to become infected. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CHIKV has become a nationally notifiable condition and, as of April 7, 2015, 77 cases were reported in the U.S. They were all travelers who became infected outside of the country and very few locally-transmitted cases are known to have occurred.
There is no medical treatment for CHIKV, so emphasis is put on prevention. Wearing bug spray and permethrin-treated clothing, emptying standing water in and around your home, and making sure all open doors and/or windows have undamaged screens are a few preventative measures suggested by the CDC.
Henry said she doesn’t foresee CHIKV becoming a problem in the U.S. because of the country’s ability to act quickly and quarantine threats to national health, as well as the varying climate across the country that would not lend itself as well to mosquito migration and the spread of CHIKV. Regardless, she said it’s always best to err on the side of caution.
Despite the seriousness and severity of the situation, Jamaican culture finds ways to lift spirits when morale is low. Blake demonstrated this when she pulled out her phone and played one of the most popular songs at the time: “Chikungunya” by Wayne J.
“Everything that happened to people is in this song,” Blake said.
The witty track, accompanied by an illustration of an angry chicken aiming a gun, pokes fun at the virus, saying it makes young people move like they’re old and challenging those who think they won’t get it to a bet.
Edwards said he and the Bromley staff make fun of how they looked when they were sick, holding their backs and limping through the house. Now, they can do it with a smile on their face.
“In Jamaica, thank god, we have a good sense of humor, so we can make a joke about it,” Edwards said.
The U.S. Center of Disease Control declined direct comment.
Blake is a worker at Greencastle Estate in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. She was one of many across the country whose life was brought to a stop last fall by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV). Blake said she was left unable to bend her legs even to use the bathroom and her young daughter couldn’t walk at all for two days.
According to a study published in 2011 by the Department of Medicine at Mymensingh Medical College hospital in Bangladesh, CHIKV is categorized as an alphavirus that targets joints and muscles, causing extreme pain and an acute fever. It was first documented in Tanzania in 1954 and has continued to linger, spreading from continent to continent. Jamaica's outbreak was the most recent in a long strand of outbreaks seen since 2004.
The study contributes CHIKV’s ability to travel such great distances to the combination of tourists and visitors catching the disease and carrying it back to their own countries and the fact it is transmitted by mosquitos. However, some locals aren’t convinced by the mosquito theory.
“We believe the government is saying that because it’s what they wanted to say,” Duane Swaby said. “I believe it was an airborne disease because it spread so quickly.”
Swaby works as a tour guide, leading jungle walks to and from a local waterfall called Kwame Falls. He said he never got bitten by a mosquito, but he experienced three stages of CHIKV: foot pain, a fever, and a rash. He said the fever was the most serious, but he still has residual pain in his joints.
Blake agreed with Swaby’s perspective. She said her daughter didn’t catch it from breast feeding, so it couldn’t have spread from fluid transfer. She caught it from being in the house, Blake said.
“It was no mosquito,” Blake said. “My standing in front of you talking would be enough for you to get it.”
John Edwards is a Jamaican citizen who owns Bromley, an estate built by his great grandfather who migrated to the country to work as a doctor. Edwards said he was sent to England for schooling at the age of 12, with his eight-year old brother. His brother became an Englishman and remained in the country, but Edwards returned to Jamaica because it was where his culture developed and had become his home.
“The fact is, in Jamaica, we create our own reasons for everything,” Edwards said. “It’s a known fact that it is a mosquito.”
Edwards contributed CHIKV’s ability to spread across the country to the lack of action taken by the Jamaican government and its people when the virus reached the country.
“We were very slow to react in Jamaica,” Edwards said.
Denise Henry, Scientific Officer at Discovery Bay Marina in Mona, Jamaica, said the first cases were reported between May and July of 2014, but it became a major problem in September because no precautions were taken to help prevent the spread of CHIKV.
“When this first started back in May, the government wasn’t taking it very seriously.
“The issue we have is there’s a lot of garbage being dumped...they’re not very conscious of proper disposal and therefore you have breeding grounds for mosquitos.”
Mymensingh’s study specified Andes mosquitos as the carriers of CHIKV and said they breed in clean water, typically rainwater collected in unused or discarded items, such as plastic cups, tires, and coconut shells. Such items are commonly seen across the country, adding to the mosquito population and ability for CHIKV to spread.
Henry said she caught it months after the majority of her family had been infected, with the exception of her father who never caught the virus. She said this was a personal confirmation that the virus could not have been airborne, unless there is an unknown immunity or resistance, but there isn’t factual information to support the idea. She described the CHIKV as making her long-healed shoulder feel like it was dislocated again because the virus attacks old injury sites.
“When I had it, I couldn’t open bottles. I couldn’t open a door. I couldn’t hardly even open the car door. I had to use both hands to put down the hand brake,” Henry said. “I got it pretty badly. It’s a very itchy rash.”
Henry said her symptoms lasted about a week. She felt better for about two weeks before falling into a kind of relapse. She looked to anti-inflammatories and pain medication to help get her cope with the symptoms, but some Jamaicans preferred to use natural remedies.
“We stick to our traditional bush herb. People turn away from traditional herb, but that’s what actually helps,” Swaby said.
He gave the example of papaya juice as a remedy for fever.
Though Swaby’s opinion is a common one among locals, Henry said the natural solution is not always the best one because there are a lot of side effects with natural remedies. She specifically mentioned kola nut (bissy) seeds, which are frequently used as a remedy for poison because they induce vomiting. She said some have used them and passed out because they, and many other Jamaicans, don’t know what the side effects of these or other natural remedies are. Last year, over 85 people died from complications after attempting to treat CHIKV naturally. Cases of someone dying from the disease are extremely rare, she said.
By now, CHIKV has swept through the entirety of Jamaica, so concern has shifted to populations that have yet to become infected. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CHIKV has become a nationally notifiable condition and, as of April 7, 2015, 77 cases were reported in the U.S. They were all travelers who became infected outside of the country and very few locally-transmitted cases are known to have occurred.
There is no medical treatment for CHIKV, so emphasis is put on prevention. Wearing bug spray and permethrin-treated clothing, emptying standing water in and around your home, and making sure all open doors and/or windows have undamaged screens are a few preventative measures suggested by the CDC.
Henry said she doesn’t foresee CHIKV becoming a problem in the U.S. because of the country’s ability to act quickly and quarantine threats to national health, as well as the varying climate across the country that would not lend itself as well to mosquito migration and the spread of CHIKV. Regardless, she said it’s always best to err on the side of caution.
Despite the seriousness and severity of the situation, Jamaican culture finds ways to lift spirits when morale is low. Blake demonstrated this when she pulled out her phone and played one of the most popular songs at the time: “Chikungunya” by Wayne J.
“Everything that happened to people is in this song,” Blake said.
The witty track, accompanied by an illustration of an angry chicken aiming a gun, pokes fun at the virus, saying it makes young people move like they’re old and challenging those who think they won’t get it to a bet.
Edwards said he and the Bromley staff make fun of how they looked when they were sick, holding their backs and limping through the house. Now, they can do it with a smile on their face.
“In Jamaica, thank god, we have a good sense of humor, so we can make a joke about it,” Edwards said.
The U.S. Center of Disease Control declined direct comment.