Land of typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and...Buggy Creek Virus?

I often say living in a tropical paradise is fun, except for the typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and Dengue Fever.

But now there is a new mosquito linked virus (although not yet in our area):

Chikungunya outbreak in antique confirmed

By Raymund F. Antonio

Published: June 29, 2013

Manila, Philippines --- The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday confirmed an outbreak of the chikungunya virus in Patnongon, Antique, with 313 cases as of April this year.

The symptoms are similar to Dengue, but it usually isn't fatal:

National Epidemiology Center head Dr. Enrique Tayag compared the disease to dengue in which is also transmitted through mosquito bites.
He said the symptoms of chikunguyna include fever, rashes, and severe joint pains.
“Chikungunya also presents with severe, persistent headache, red eyes, difficulty in directly looking at light, nausea, and measles-like rashes,” Tayag said via his Twitter account.

Wikipedia article here.

You have to remember that poor folks don't always go to the hospital for achyness and fevers, and a lot of cases might be though to be Dengue.

One of our cousins, a nurse, was hospitalized for possible Dengue last year, but the tests were negative: Maybe he had this virus....