MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report
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MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. · Sep 2006
Case ReportsChikungunya fever diagnosed among international travelers--United States, 2005-2006.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus indigenous to tropical Africa and Asia, where it is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes, usually of the genus Aedes. Chikungunya (CHIK) fever, the disease caused by CHIKV, was first recognized in epidemic form in East Africa during 1952-1953. The word "chikungunya" is thought to derive from description in local dialect of the contorted posture of patients afflicted with the severe joint pain associated with this disease. ⋯ During 2005-2006, 12 cases of CHIK fever were diagnosed serologically and virologically at CDC in travelers who arrived in the United States from areas known to be epidemic or endemic for CHIK fever. This report describes four of these cases and provides guidance to health-care providers. Clinicians should be alert for additional cases among travelers, and public health officials should be alert to evidence of local transmission of chikungunya virus (CHIKV), introduced through infection of local mosquitoes by a person with viremia.
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MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. · Sep 2006
Case ReportsCiguatera fish poisoning--Texas, 1998, and South Carolina, 2004.
Ciguatera fish poisoning is characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea and neurologic symptoms such as weakness, tingling, and pruritus (itching). The condition is caused by eating fish containing toxins produced by the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus, a one-celled plantlike organism that grows on algae in tropical waters worldwide. ⋯ This report describes ciguatera fish poisoning in four persons (two in 1998, two in 2004) who ate fish caught by recreational fishers in waters outside of ciguatera-endemic areas (e.g., the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic and Gulf Coast waters off southern Florida). These cases underscore the need for physicians, regardless of whether they are in a ciguatera-endemic area, to consider ciguatera in patients who have gastrointestinal or neurologic symptoms after eating large, predatory fish.