Chikungunya blues

Employees at 345 hotels across Costa Rica are conducting cleaning campaigns in their communities to eliminate potential breeding sites for mosquitoes that transmit the dengue and chikungunya viruses. The good news is that the number of dengue cases has dropped by 79 percent this month compared to the same period last year.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – At least 16,000 patient have contracted the chikungunya virus in El Salvador, prompting health officials in the Central American country to step up the fight Monday to eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Health Ministry officials will ask the National Emergency Commission (CNE) to issue a "green alert" to draw attention to the spread of chikungunya after 13 patients tested positive for the virus in the country.

Health officials are analyzing blood samples from a 17-year-old man and 30-year-old woman who could become the first two cases of Costa Ricans to test positive for the chikungunya virus.

Health Vice Minister María Esther Anchía on Friday confirmed that a French tourist is officially the first patient to test positive for the chikungunya virus in Costa Rica.

Two patients were discharged this week from local hospitals after the Health Ministry said lab tests for the chikungunya virus were negative.

Health Ministry officials are currently on alert to detect any possible cases of people infected with chikungunya virus, a desease that shares most of the same symptoms with dengue: high fever, headaches, muscle and joint pains, nausea and rash.

The first known outbreak of the chikungunya virus in the Western Hemisphere has Caribbean governments working to prevent the disease from spreading and damaging the region's tourism-dependent economies.