Untreatable tropical virus prompts CDC alerts for Americans heading abroad
US health officials have issued travel advisories for Americans planning trips to certain tropical countries amid outbreaks of an untreatable mosquito-borne disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday that it has issued Level 2 travel advisories for Cuba, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Guangdong Province in southern China, advising Americans to “practice enhanced precautions” when visiting these areas.
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Health officials say there are currently no treatments for chikungunya, but the disease is vaccine-preventable, and vaccination is recommended for travelers to affected areas.
The most common symptoms of the virus include fever and joint pain, though patients may also experience headache, muscle pain, joint swelling or a rash, according to health officials.
Symptoms typically appear three to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito, and most people recover within a week.
In severe cases, some may experience severe joint pain lasting months or even years while others “may require hospitalization because of the risk of organ damage and death,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to an Oct. 3 notice from WHO, there have been 445,000 suspected and confirmed cases of chikungunya and 155 deaths worldwide between January and September 2025.
In Bangladesh, WHO reported 700 suspected chikungunya cases in the capital, Dhaka, between January and September 2025, citing the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.
As of late September, a total of 16,000 locally transmitted chikungunya cases have been confirmed in Guangdong Province, China, marking the largest documented outbreak of the disease in the country to date.
Between January and late September, 34 confirmed cases of chikungunya were reported in Cuba, and public health interventions have been implemented to contain the outbreak.
In Sri Lanka, a total of 150 confirmed chikungunya cases were reported between Jan. 1 and the second week of March 2025, WHO said, adding that cases reportedly peaked in June.
The CDC warned that Americans traveling to Brazil, Colombia, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand may also face an increased risk of chikungunya infection, even if no outbreak is currently reported.
The US has not seen any locally acquired chikungunya cases in its states or territories since 2019.
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