Chikungunya Occurrence among a Religious Missions Trip to Haiti in the Summer of 2014 and Implications for Community Health

Abstract

As global travel becomes more common, the risk of spreading infectious diseases is increasing. Vectors too are spreading and becoming invasive species in environmental niches where they had previously been absent. The potential continues to grow for people to bring back diseases and infect local naive insect populations, which over time will increase the likelihood of the disease transmission occurring locally. This article evaluates the impact of a mission’s trip to Haiti and the return to a region of the United States that just recently became invaded by Aedes aegypti. The attack rate among the missionaries was approximately 20% (n=2), but this brings into question precautions that missionaries and other travelers will want to take upon return from tropical regions with endemic vector borne disease. Providers as well as travel clinics should educate patients regarding their viremic period and the potential to bring back diseases with them. While it would take hundreds of people to be viremic and to be bitten by the naive vector to establish local transmission, the preventative action is minor and would require travelers from endemic areas to continue to apply insect repellant for 7 days after return from an endemic region.