Birders who visit SE Asia and New Guinea generally take precautions against Malaria and Dengue. There is now another mosquito borne virus they will have to take care with. Chikungunya virus (CKV). Originally from Africa, has now spread to SE Asia and through the Indonesian archipelago to New Guinea. The carrier was the mosquito sp Aedes aegypti, but several years ago the virus mutated and is now carried by the Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) as well. The Tiger mosquito is active during the day as well as dusk and dawn in urban and rural areas. It is very active in jungle during the day, hence the alternate common name, Forest mosquito. If anyone is planning on a trip to SE Asia, please cover up and slap on your preferred repellant. This can be a very nasty virus, and the older you are, the harder it hits you. I was recently in Sabah birding with a friend from the UK. My friend went on to Thailand birding at the end of our trip. About a week after he arrived home, he came down with CKV and became critically ill. Three moths later, he is hoping to be able to return to work on light duties soon. Here are a couple of pages on CKV you might be interested in having a look at. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2013-07-21/4823184 http://www.health.nt.gov.au/library/scripts/objectifyMedia.aspx?file=pdf/42/83.pdf&siteID=1&str_title=Chikungunya.pdf Cheers, Carl Clifford =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================
|
||||
|
Comments are closed. |
||||
