In Spain’s for the first time, people with the Chikungunya Virus. In the holiday province of Alicante in the East of the country were infected tourists from the Island with the mosquito-borne Virus.

In the case of the Affected three members of a family that was in may, on the Costa Blanca. As the competent health authorities in the Valencia Region reported at the weekend, so far no further cases of infection known. You’ve but launched nevertheless, all the necessary measures and controls, it said.

The Virus is transmitted primarily by the Egyptian tiger mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). According to data from the European centre for disease prevention and control (ECDC) is spread the Virus in many African countries, as well as in the South and South-East Asia. After a rapid expansion in Central and South America, it occurs for some years, and sporadically also in Europe, according to the ECDC for the first time in 2007 in Italy, and later in France.

“But this is the first case of infection in Spain at all,” said a spokesman for the health authorities in Valencia, the Alicante newspaper “Información”. You know, because of the incubation period, the patient must have been stung during your holiday on the Costa del Sol in the second half of may, as the speaker. Upon their return, the disease had been found. The Icelandic authorities have informed the competent Spanish Central authorities in Madrid, as well as the regional health authorities in Valencia immediately, it said.

Symptoms of Chikungunya fever

Chikungunya fever associated with flu, typical symptoms such as high fever, head and body aches. Most Infected people recover completely, often after a week. Dangerous is the Virus for the chronically Ill, as well as for Pregnant women and infants. Deaths are extremely rare. A vaccine or a targeted therapy does not yet exist.

The first cases in Spain would have been expected due to the increasing travel and transport of goods – the filibuster, the mosquitoes in the world – “to” and for the time being, only individual cases, said the head of the Department for tropical diseases at the Madrid Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Rogelio López-Vélez, of the newspaper “El País”. They were but still take very seriously.

“The mortality rate is (for Chikungunya), although not relevant, and different than, for example, the hemorrhagic Dengue fever is no treatment at the intensive care unit is necessary, but about half of the patients suffer for months in pain and stiffness (of joints),” he said.

Protection against mosquitoes

The holidays in Spain do not need to cancel tourists to experts, but. The ECDC recommends that travelers to protect themselves from mosquito bites, with Repellents, long clothes and mosquito nets.

In Germany, there were in the year 2017 a total of 33 cases of Chikungunya fever, according to the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. All had been imported from countries, most of them from India and Brazil. The Vector mosquito Aedes albopticus is regional to be found in Germany.