Chikungunya virus loves warm New York winters [View all]

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21816-chikungunya-virus-loves-warm-new-york-winters.html


An Asian tiger mosquito bite is painful but chikungunya is worse (Image: CDC/Science Photo Library)

Warmer New York winters have a sting in the tail. The mosquito that carries chikungunya, a virus that causes joint pain, but isn't fatal, is flocking to the city in increasing numbers.

The virus, which originates in Africa, is carried by the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) and could become endemic in New York within a few years. Until now the bitter winters have kept mosquito numbers down, says Laura Harrington at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Harrington estimates there is one Asian tiger mosquito for every five New Yorkers. Once that ratio flips to five insects per person, her model suggests that someone arriving in New York carrying the virus would have a 38 per cent chance of passing it on to another person through mosquito bites. The disease could become entrenched in the city at that level of infection, Harrington told the Inside Cornell event in New York City last week.

Isolated cases of chikungunya have already been reported in the US, but just like similar cases that showed up in Europe in 2007, seasonal changes in weather kept mosquito numbers down and the virus in check.