U.S. officials have directed people to exercise enhanced precaution when traveling to a province in China because of the outbreak of the chikungunya virus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning people traveling to China about an outbreak of the chikungunya virus there.
The CDC said in an Aug. 1 notice that there is an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in Guangdong Province, and most cases have been reported in the city of Foshan.
Officials are advising people to exercise caution by wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants and only staying in places that have air conditioning or screens covering doors and windows.
The CDC recommends that people traveling to any area with a chikungunya outbreak take a chikungunya vaccine.
Two vaccines are available in the United States: a live-attenuated version that is cleared for people aged 18 and up, and a virus-like particle vaccine licensed for people 12 years of age and older.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and CDC have suspended administration of the former in people aged 62 to 89 as they investigate issues that cropped up among vaccine recipients in that age group.
“Healthcare providers should discuss the benefits and risks of vaccination with individual travelers based on their age, underlying health conditions, destination, trip duration, and planned activites [sic],” the CDC said in its notice, which was listed as level two out of four.
Chikungunya is a disease caused by a virus also called chikungunya. Mosquito bites transmit the virus to humans. There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Outbreaks regularly occur in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
Symptoms usually appear four to eight days after a bite. Symptoms include joint pain, joint swelling, and headache.
The symptoms can be similar to those suffered by people with dengue fever and Zika, which makes it difficult for officials to accurately peg the number of people infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
In China, thousands of cases have been officially reported in Guangdong Province. The Chinese communist regime has repeatedly underreported the true number of outbreaks, including those of COVID-19.
