3 Dozen NJ Residents Test Positive for Mosquito Viruses, Officials Say

Written By Caitlin Brown

Only a few days after warning New Jersey residents about West Nile Virus turning up in mosquito pools in several towns and counties, health officials have now announced that at least two dozen residents have tested positive for another misquito-borne disease called chikungunya virus, and a dozen more have contracted dengue fever, a similar disease.

Officials have said that the chikungunya virus has spread from travelers who have visited the Caribbean. All of the New Jersey residents who have tested positive for this new virus, including six people from Bergen County and three from Passaic County, had all traveled recently to the Caribbean.

“They’re bit by a mosquito in the endemic country and the virus is present in their blood,” says Bergen County Disease Prevention and Control Program Manager Karen Alelis, according to news12.com. “When they come back to New Jersey, if another mosquito bites an infected person, it can transmit that virus.”

Symptoms of chikungunya virus include fevers, headaches, and severe muscle aches and joint aches.

Although several pools of mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile virus, no human cases have been reported in New Jersey.