When someone enters the hospital with the chikungunya virus, there’s no mistaking it.
“The patients came here with fever and also with pain in their joints,” says Dr. Susana Lloveras, an infectious disease physician at Hospital Muñiz in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of several South American countries where the mosquito-borne virus has surged in 2023. The joints in their hands and feet commonly ache along with their knees. The pain can get so bad that some have difficulty walking or even holding a cup of coffee.
“It affects the quality of life,” says Lloveras. “You are well. And suddenly, you can’t move, you need another person help you to do the common task of every day.”
Although the disease is rarely fatal, the worst symptom can be long-lasting joint pain. But new advances, including a study just published this week, may soon help us outfox this virus — whose name is pronounced “chicken-GOON-ya” and according to the World Health Organization, comes from the Kimakonde language, spoken in parts of Tanzania and Mozambique, and means “to become contorted.”
Counting cases
The case count in South America this year is already up to a quarter of a million new cases. The outbreak is at its fiercest in Paraguay, which has seen over 100,000 diagnoses.
Over the years, Dr. Lloveras says she has seen cases of chikungunya in Buenos Aires “but it is not common for us. No more than one or two cases each year.” And always from people bringing the mosquito-borne virus with them from other countries.
But earlier this year, she says, “We receive every day patients with chikungunya including some with no travel history.” Which means, for the first time, mosquitoes within Buenos Aires were transmitting the disease.
Why is the disease’s footprint growing? “Wherever the mosquitoes goes, we will have chikungunya — it’s a global concern,” says Nischay Mishra, a virologist at Columbia University. With the climate changing and temperatures getting warmer, “there are more chances…
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