Chikungunya, A Painful Mosquito-Borne Disease, Is Taking Root In Florida And Texas

Climate Change And The Spread Of Infectious Disease

http://www.nrdc.org/health/climate/disease.asp

In the United States, more than 750 cases of another painful disease, chikungunya, have been reported this year. Almost all have been in tourists returning from the Caribbean, where the disease is rampant, particularly in the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique and Puerto Rico. Nine million Americans visit the Caribbean each year. But Florida residents who had not traveled were infected this summer, and the virus was found in a Texas mosquito, meaning that it is becoming established in the United States. Chikungunya was unknown in the Western Hemisphere until late last year." Donald G. McNeil Jr. in The New York Times.

Mosquitoes are known as "promiscuous feeders" which means they continue their blood meals beyond the point of "satisfaction" and simply discharge superfluous blood through their rear end.