Woman Loses Eyesight after Mosquito Bite
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A woman who caught Chikungunya fever while vacationing in the Caribbean ended up losing some of the vision in her right eye permanently, according to a new report of her case.
The findings suggest that vision problems may be an underreported effect of the mosquito-transmitted virus, which has spread in recent years from Africa and Asia to the Caribbean, Latin America and parts of the United States, the report’s authors said.
“Sight-threatening visual loss can be a late complication of infection with chikungunya,” said Dr. Abhijit Mohite, who treated the woman and co-authored the report of her case.
Researchers first recognized chikungunya (chik-un-GUN-ya) in Tanzania in 1952. The name is based on an East African word that means “that which bends,” because people infected with the virus are often bent over with muscle and joint pain. Other symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and rash.
The disease is transmitted by two species of mosquito — Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus — that are recognizable by their black and white legs.
There is no vaccine or drug to treat the disease, but medications such as steroids can treat the symptoms, which include inflammation.
The woman in the case was 69, and visited the Caribbean island of Grenada in July 2014. During her stay, she was bitten by mosquitoes, and developed a flu-like illness, fever, rash and joint pain. She also developed muscle weakness in her face, and received steroids from a local doctor to treat it, according to the study.
The woman returned home to the United Kingdom that August. Although her illness appeared to go away (except for lingering joint pain and stiffness), she began having trouble seeing with her right eye.
However, during the six days that it took for the doctors to run all the tests and prescribe the steroids, about half of the nerve cells in woman’s optic nerve died, Mohite said.
The steroids decreased the inflammation, but couldn’t undo all of the damage.
The steroids, unfortunately, were not started soon enough in the patient.
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