The 28-year-old celebrity contracted the virus while vacationing in Bora Bora shortly before New Year’s Day.
The rare and incurable Chikungunya virus is transmitted by mosquito bites.
After filming her upcoming Esurance commercial in LA, she returned to London, where she was reportedly checked in to King Edward VII’s Hospital after becoming so ill she could no longer walk.
Chikungunya is an infection caused by the Chikungunya virus.
It features sudden onset fever usually lasting two to seven days, and joint pains typically lasting weeks or months but sometimes years.
The mortality rate is a little less than 1 in 1000, with the elderly most likely to die.
The virus is passed to humans by two species of mosquito.
The strain of chikungunya spreading to the US from the Caribbean is most easily spread by A. aegypti. Concern exists that this strain of chikungunya could mutate to make the A. albopictus vector more efficient.
If this mutation were to occur, chikungunya would be more of a public health concern to the US because the A. albopictus or Asian tiger mosquito is more widespread in the US and is more aggressive than the A. aegypti.
Animal reservoirs of the virus include monkeys, birds, cattle, and rodents.[9] This is in contrast todengue, for which only humans and primates are hosts.
