New York health officials confirm state’s first case of locally acquired chikungunya virus

A Long Island resident has a locally acquired case of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, New York state officials confirmed Tuesday.

It’s the first such case in state history and the first in the U.S. and its territories since 2019, the New York State Department of Health said.

All previous chikungunya cases in New York state, including three other cases this year, were the result of international travel to places with outbreaks of the virus. 

Health officials believe the patient was bitten by a chikungunya-infected mosquito but have not identified the exact source of exposure.

Mosquitoes capable of transmitting chikungunya are present in downstate New York. One of those mosquitoes could have bitten a person who got the virus through travel and spread it to the patient, state officials said.

State and New York City health officials have not detected chikungunya in any samples of New York mosquitoes taken as of Tuesday.

The virus doesn’t spread from person to person, with the exception of pregnant women passing it on to fetuses during pregnancy or to babies during delivery, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

State health officials didn’t identify the patient, only to say the case was confirmed in Nassau County. 

A 60-year-old woman living in Hempstead, a Nassau County town 20 miles east of Manhattan, spoke to The New York Times after a preliminary test last month and said she had not traveled recently and was surprised to see chikungunya pop up on her test results. 

Chikungunya symptoms start within three days to a week after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito and include fever, joint pain, headaches, muscle pain, swollen joints and rash, according to the CDC.

Most patients start to feel better within a week of their symptoms starting, though in some cases, severe and disabling joint pain lasts for months. The disease is rarely fatal, the CDC says.