Mosquito-borne chikungunya virus spreads in Caribbean

Seven deaths have been associated with the virus, but those people likely suffered from other health problems. A painful mosquito-borne virus spreading quickly through the Caribbean is causing alarm in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic, where health officials are scrambling to respond to a surge of new patients. Chikungunya, a virus more commonly found in Africa and Asia and transmitted by the same daytime-biting aedes aegypti mosquito that causes the more deadly dengue fever, was first detected in the eastern Caribbean five months ago. Since then, it has jumped from island to island, sending thousands of patients to the hospital with painful joints, pounding headaches and spiking fevers. “These mosquitoes know no borders,” said Phyllis Kozarsky, a physician with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Seven deaths have been associated with the virus, but those people likely suffered from other health problems, health officials say. Chikungunya is normally not deadly and...