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Europe Bracing for Bird Flu Amidst Cool Spell
Temperatures are high in Europe, but bird flu news has been cooling down. Highly pathogenic bird flu, however, arrived in late 2005 and is likely to make a comeback any day now as birds make their way south from the Arctic. Monitoring by the European Union should enable flu watching agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) follow any developing trends in the spread of H5N1 bird flu. Here's a great article with a summary of bird flu in Europe by Bloomberg news journalist Jason Gale.
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Chikungunya Fever in Europe
Chikungunya fever has been reported in Italy making news because it’s the first time the disease has been transmitted in Europe informs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States (CDC). Chikungunya fever is a caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Both of these species also transmit dengue fever by the way, a more common, and more dangerous disease. The Aedes mosquitoes are sometimes called “tiger” mosquitoes because they have white stripes on their legs. Travelers are recommended to take preventative measures to avoid mosquito bites in the Italian province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna.
The symptoms of Chikungunya fever according to the CDC, can include the sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, joint pain (that may or may not be accompanied by swelling), lower back pain and a rash. These symptoms are very similar to the symptoms of dengue hemorrhagic fever, but Chikungunya is not usually a hemorrhagic disease. People affected by Chikungunya fever rarely die and usually get better without any treatment at all.
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