Health

Chikungunya Holds Steady In Territory

Chikungunya is proving to be a pesky problem for the Virgin Islands Department of Health, as it continues to hold steady in the territory after health officials told VI Consortium the disease would have left the territory by February 2015. The department's own latest data show chikungunya still affecting the three islands, and the number of suspected cases saw a slight increase on St. Croix. Data released on Jan. 22 show 38 confirmed cases on St. Croix for the weekend ending Dec. 28, 2014, identical to the Dec. 14 report. However, suspected cases jumped by 11 to 530 from 519. On St. John, confirmed cases rose from seven in the Dec. 14 data to 10 in the latest report; however, suspected cases dropped on the small island by one, bringing the new total to 38 suspected case. On St. Thomas, the numbers held steady across the board in the latest data, with 228 confirmed and 753 suspected cases. Last December, Dr. Esther Ellis, territorial epidemiologist, said the projections that the de...