Chikungunya thrives with climate variability in Caribbean

By Michelle Nurse Last updated Feb 20, 2015

Jenny had gone to bed feeling well, but an hour into her sleep she suddenly awoke with a “stiff, cramping pain” behind one knee. Within the next hour the pains had multiplied and both knees began to lock, followed by stiffened fingers and pains in her chest, along with a fever.

Jenny Gittens, 61, described her experience with chikungunya over the next two weeks as marked by excruciating pain. “If I had a choice between chikungunya and having to deliver a baby I would go for the baby pains, it was that bad,” Gittens, a mother of two said.

Over the following days she developed a rash that lasted for a few days and pains in her collar bone that left her bent over. “I just could not straighten up…You can’t turn, you just lie there. It was really excruciating,” she told IPS.