"Chikungunya Thrives with Climate Variability in the Caribbean"

"TRINIDAD - 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 from Trinidad, 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.

Though Gittens’ case was unconfirmed, it fit the description of chikungunya, the mosquito-borne disease whose name comes from an African word meaning 'bent over with pain'."

Jewel Fraser reports for Inter Press Service February 20, 2015.