As feared, the chikungunya virus has begun spreading in Europe. In June, a few people near developed a fever with severe joint pain, but by mid-August there were more than 100 cases.
The that the culprit is chikungunya virus, a previously rare, mild infection spread by mosquitoes, that . Since 2005, it has infected at least 1.4 million people in India and on islands in the Indian Ocean and may have .
Italian officials blame the outbreak on warm weather and unusually high numbers of mosquitoes, but as 快猫短视频 went to press no more new cases had come to light in recent days.
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from infected areas, but the Italian cases are the first in Europe to have originated locally, meaning that the virus has now established itself in mosquitoes. Officials are spraying insecticide in the places where the insects breed in a bid to wipe them out.
鈥淭he Italian cases are the first infections in Europe to have originated locally鈥�
The Asian tiger mosquito, which carries chikungunya, is now widespread in Italy, but also in warmer regions of Europe and the Americas where the virus is not established.
In the tropics the insects also carry the more serious dengue virus, which infects about 100 million people a year. The fear is that if chikungunya can establish itself in local tiger mosquitoes, so can dengue.
