The word chikungunya is thought to derive from a description in the Makonde language, meaning that which bends up, of the contorted posture of patients afflicted with the severe joint pain and arthritic symptoms associated with this disease.[53] The disease was first described by Marion Robinson[54] and W.H.R. Lumsden[55] in 1955, following an outbreak in 1952 on the Makonde Plateau, along the border between Mozambique and Tanganyika (the mainland part of modern day Tanzania). According to the initial 1955 report about the epidemiology of the disease, the term chikungunya is derived from the Makonde root verb kungunyala, meaning to dry up or become contorted. In concurrent research, Robinson glossed the Makonde term more specifically as that which bends up. Subsequent authors apparently overlooked the references to the Makonde language and assumed the term derived from Swahili, the lingua franca of the region. The erroneous attribution of the term as a Swahili word has been repeated in numerous print sources. Many other erroneous spellings and forms of the term are in common use including chicken guinea, chicken gunaya, and chickengunya.[citation needed] Since its discovery in Tanganyika, Africa, in 1952, chikungunya virus outbreaks have occurred occasionally in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, but recent outbreaks have spread the disease over a wider range. The first recorded outbreak of this disease may have been in 1779.[56] This is in agreement with the molecular genetics evidence that suggests it evolved around the year 1700.[57] In December 2013, chikungunya was confirmed on the Caribbean island of St. Martin with 66 confirmed cases and suspected cases of around 181.[58] This outbreak is the first time in the Western Hemisphere that the disease has spread to humans from a population of infected mosquitoes.[59] By January 2014, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported that cases were confirmed on the British Virgin Islands, Saint-Barthélemy, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.[60] In April 2014, chikungunya was also confirmed in the Dominican Republic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).[61] By the end of April, it had spread to 14 countries in all, including St. Lucia, and Haiti where an epidemic was declared.[62][63] By the end of May 2014, over ten imported cases of the virus had been reported in the United States by people traveling from areas where the virus is endemic to Florida [64] On June 2014 six cases of the virus were confirmed in Brazil, two in the city of Campinas state of São Paulo. The six cases are Brazilian army soldiers that has recently returned from Haiti where they were participating in the reconstruction efforts.United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.[65] The information was officialy released by Campinas municipality health secretary that has taken the appropriate actions.[66] On June 11, 2014, a case was reported in Forsyth County, North Carolina.[67]
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:11:17 +0000
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