US puts flyers on watch for chikungunya

WASHINGTON: With people across India succumbing to dengue and chikungunya, the US has put flyers on watch for the viral fevers but there is no formal alert or travel advisory to the effect.

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Atlanta-based government agency has warned American clinicians to watch out for sysmptoms of chikungunya among travellers returning from areas afflicted with the fever but there has been no travel advisory posted either on the State Department or any other websites.

India is listed by it as one of the regions.

CDC has had put out a lengthy factsheet on chikungunya on October 6, including a case study of an unnamed adult female resident of India who came to the US earlier this year was diagnosed with the fever.

"In March 2006, she travelled to Louisiana, where she sought medical attention for persistent joint pain. At CDC, tests of a single serum sample collected on March 30 (74 days after illness onset) were positive for IgM and neutralizing antibodies to CHIKV," the CDC said, adding that the patient "was subsequently lost to follow-up".

The CDC has said that the virus spread by mosquitos has been sweeping through parts of Southern India and Islands in the Indian Ocean and reported towards the end of September 2006 that travellers had carried it to Europe and the United States.