Missouri reports case of mosquito-borne virus

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri health officials have reported the state's first case of a mosquito-borne virus that has been spreading to the U.S. from the Caribbean.

The St. Louis County Health Department announced Tuesday that a 38-year-old resident was infected with chikungunya, which cannot be passed from human to human, while traveling in the Caribbean.

The virus causes symptoms such as fever and joint pain within a week after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito. Patients can also develop severe headaches, muscle pain and swollen joints.

There is no vaccine and no specific treatment for the virus, which typically is not fatal. Mosquitoes in the St. Louis region are not known to carry the virus.

About 300 other travel-related cases have been reported nationwide, including one in Illinois, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Florida has reported 107 chikungunya cases.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, travelers were bitten by infected mosquitoes in tropical destinations, including Anguilla, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Tonga and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The CDC recommends insect repellent and checking that door and window screens are intact to avoid mosquito bites.

Chikungunya is derived from an African word that loosely translates to "contorted with pain." It has infected tens of thousands of people in the Caribbean islands since December.