Traveler's are being struck down by a debilitating and potentially fatal mosquito-borne virus.

People returning from Bali and other parts of Asia are getting struck down with the chikungunya virus has skyrocketed this year and is expected to climb further during the upcoming wet season.

The bad news is there is no cure!
It's only carriedby two spicies of mosquito, the chikungunya virus causes feavers, nausea, a rash and intense joint and muscle pains which can linger for months, it's knowen to leave some hospitalised or bed bound for months.

Medical experts say too many travellers are complacent about the threat of mosquitos in South East Asia and neighbouring regions, including tourist hot spots like Bali, India and Singapore, and in Papua New Guinea.
Unlike malaria, there are no medications to prevent Chikungunya but mosquito researcher Dr Cameron Webb said the chances of avoiding being bitten improved 10-fold when reliable repellents were used properly.
Trusted insect repellents that contain the ingredients DEET or picaridin should be bought in your country and  to be taken on overseas travel and should be applied liberally throughout the day.Experts say that the repellent should be used like sunscreen not just a quick spray here and there.

“If people don’t take the repellent with them on holidays there may not be an available supply in the destination (they are visiting) or those available may not meet the standards (we expect in Australia).”
Unfortunately, he said, warnings about dangerous mosquitos were too often being ignored.
“I think that probably people are becoming complacent,” Dr Webb said.
“Once they get to the destination, the mosquito populations might not be as abundant as they’re used to in Australia (which creates a) false sense of security and complacency.”
The mosquitos that carry Chikungunya are breeding in many of the busy tourist areas of popular holiday destinations, surprising travellers who only expect to encounter them outside the cities, Dr Webb said.
“They’re not in the jungles and not in the wetlands, they’re breeding in urban areas of South East Asia, around your accommodation, the cities and towns that you’re visiting.”


The incubation period of chikungunya disease ranges from one to twelve days, usually two to three. Its symptoms include a fever up to 40 °C (104 °F), a petechial or maculopapular rash of the trunk and occasionally the limbs, and arthralgia or arthritis affecting multiple joints.
Other nonspecific symptoms can include headache, nausea, vomitting, conjunctivitis, slight photophobia and partial loss of taste
Typically, the fever lasts for two days and then ends abruptly. However, other symptoms—namely joint pain, intense headache, insomnia and an extreme degree of prostration—last for a variable period; usually for about five to seven days.
Patients have complained of joint pains for much longer time periods; some as long as two years, depending on their age. 

This virus was first identified in Tanzania in the 1953 appears to have evolved from an alphavirus in Africa.
The East/Central/South African (ECSA) and Asian strains diverged within the last 150 years.

Area of  OutBreaks

The Asian group split into two clades: an Indian lineage which has probably become extinct and a Southeast Asian lineage. The Southeast Asian lineage spread from Thailand to Indonesia; and then to the Philippines and more recently Malaysia. The recent Indian Ocean basin outbreak that began in 2004 appears to have originated from the ECSA group back in 2002.

 Chikungunya was one of more than a dozen agents the United States researched as potential biological weapons before the nation suspended its biological weapons program.