Expat Community > Ecuador

OceanHideaway
Joined 2010
Posts: 6876

Chikungunya...

8 years ago

FYI here on the coast: Chikungunya in Salinas.

With the rains come the mosquitoes and with the mosquitoes come dengues and chikungunya and zika. I´ve been offline for about 3 weeks, back online sporadically the past week, because I was hit by chikungunya.
I´m here in Anconcito which is one of the drier areas of the Santa Elena Peninsula, south east of Salinas on the Mar Bravo side of the peninsula. I showed signs of the illnesses about 6 days after viviting Salinas and so far I am the only one in my area (neighborhood) who has come down with it so we feel I contracted it in Salinas, not here. It is actually the least serious of the three. It was a nasty flu-like experience, high fever and my lungs were (as usually occur with any flu I get) congested. Also as with any of these three there is no treatmemnt except to treat the symptoms.
For me (under my phyisicians care) that meant breathing treatments (nebulizer which I have) with loritidine (claritin) and ambruxol to keep my lungs clear. A tylenol type analgesic for fever (not an NSAID, as this is not appropriate and can lead to hemoraghing in the lungs), I used Paracetamol. And because chikungunya often comes with a very itchy rash I also took atarax which is an anti itch medication that is also a sedative and allowed me to sleep. Since I have a pre exisiting condition from birth (a congenital heart defect which was fixed by surgery 54 years ago) I do take a prophylactic antibiotic whenever there is a chance of bacterial infection, and did so with thisillness, taking 5 days of cipro.
I had very little appetite but was careful to drink as much liquid as possible. I preferred limonada (lime ade) and the sugar was very helpful. My friends here wanted me to drink it hot, but I couldn´t do that. Another popular beverage for coughs is boiling ginger and drinking that liquid with sugar or honey. And of course the universal cure, chicken soup made with plenty of vegetables which as we all know is the ultimate cure all throughout the world (all grandmas agree).
The fever lasted in its acute phase (topping at 103F) for 5 days and I am at 3 weeks still experiencing a slight elevation in the evenings, countered by 500 mg of paracetamol, and continued use of atarax each evening for the last of the rash
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Chikungunya...

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