Researchers identified a new mosquito-borne disease read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/860-researchers-identified-a-new-mosquito-borne-disease

University of Florida researchers have identified a patient in Haiti with a serious mosquito-borne illness that has never before been reported in the Caribbean nation.

“Mayaro virus,” it is closely related to Chikungunya virus and was first isolated in Trinidad in 1954. However, have been confined to small outbreaks in the Amazon. Whether this case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region is currently unknown.

Glenn Morris, M.D., M.P.H., director of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute, said, we will not see the same massive epidemics that we saw with Chikungunya, dengue and now Zika. However, the fact that there are additional viruses waiting in the wing’s that may pose threats in the future, and for which we need to be watching.

The case was identified from an 8-year-old boy in rural Haiti in 2015. The patient had a fever and abdominal pain, but no rash or conjunctivitis.

Faculty from UF Emerging Pathogens Institute were obtained plasma samples from febrile children and analyzed for the presence of Chikungunya virus RNA using a genetic identification technique known as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

Scientists examined these plasma samples, and focusing on the detection of Chikungunya, dengue and Zika viruses. Dengue virus was detected in the patient, in addition to a "new" virus that was subsequently identified as Mayaro.

The study lead author John Lednicky said, "The virus we detected genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don't know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses."

The symptoms of Mayaro fever are similar to those of Chikungunya. Abdominal pain is also a feature of Mayaro fever, and joint pain can last longer.