merry christmas happy new years 2014, i'll be back in 2014 with more health and pharmacy updates :)

I got nothing left to say. Your joints start to hurt and you have cold symptoms run straight to your doctor.

big welcome 4 chikungunya!

I will not spell this word anymore, I'll just copy and paste.

Outbreak of St. Martin chikungunya virus now discovered in the USA 1st local transmission in Americas

The Chikungunya virus been discovered only in St Martin, but already someone has brought the virus back into America. It' now official. The strain of Dengue known as Chikungunya is now appearing in the USA. Considering we just had 8/9 cruise ships that one day, and several dozen ships during the past month, I would get checked out once I got back home, just to make sure. 

I was sick over the weekend. It lasted one day, but there was no joint ache, so I assume it was the common cold. I still went to the Doctor and pharmacists and got antibiotics and painkillers. Anyone with the symptoms of Chikungunya needs to visit their doctor ASAP. It most likely will not kill you, but it can cause life-long symptoms, pain and ailments.

Below is the USA perspective on St Maarten's christmas present to them: Chikungunya

Epidemiologists have so far confirmed about a dozen cases of locally acquired chikungunya virus in St. Martin, which shares a 34-square-mile (87-square-kilometer) island in the northeast Caribbean with the Dutch territory of St. Maarten. There are dozens more suspected cases.

The illness found mainly in Africa and Asia is usually not life threatening. But there is no vaccine for it, and it can cause a debilitating sickness with fever, rash, fatigue and vomiting and intense muscle and joint pain that can last for weeks in serious cases. It's commonly spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever, a similar but more serious illness with a deadly hemorrhagic form.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a health advisory to doctors in the United States to consider chikungunya infection in patients with acute onset of fever and joint pain, "especially those who have recently traveled to the Caribbean."

The French Caribbean territory of St. Martin shares a tiny island with Dutch St. Maarten. Health officials on both sides of the island are responding to the outbreak by reducing mosquito breeding sites, enhancing epidemiological surveillance and enlisting the help of the public to clear out stagnant water. The tourist-dependent island is already battling an outbreak of dengue fever.

"The obligation is to control the progression of chikungunya, not least to prevent it spreading to other islands," said St. Martin Vice President Guillaume Arnell. "It started here so we have to contain it here."

A nasty virus first detected in Africa that is spread to people by the bite of infected mosquitoes is being locally transmitted in the Americas for the first time on the tiny French Caribbean dependency of St. Martin, health officials said Tuesday.

Beryl Irons, the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said she thinks the regional response is good so far. The first two cases were confirmed earlier this month.

"There is already heightened surveillance within the region because they have dengue," Irons said by telephone.

In the British Virgin Islands, Health Minister Ronnie W. Skelton told lawmakers that confirmed cases were very likely to rise on St. Martin as laboratory tests are completed. He said the Dutch side of the island has no reported cases.

"There is currently no evidence of cases in other parts of the Caribbean," Skelton said in a statement to the British islands' House of Assembly.

Chikungunya has showed up in in parts of Italy and France over the past decade. It's not clear how the virus got to St. Martin. But the CDC says there is a risk of importing the mosquito-borne illness into new areas through infected travellers.

The CDC says chikungunya means "that which bends up" in the Kimako language of Mozambique, a reference to the physique of an infected patient. It was first isolated in 1953 in the blood of a patient in Tanzania.

The St Maarten Pharmacy: Can you get the same medicines in St Maarten, that you do back home?

Visitors to the island should always bring their own medication since there is no guarantee that you'll find the same medication here. When in doubt head to the Philipsburg Pharmacy, which is about three blocks from the frontstreet, very close to Point Blanch where the ships dock. Because the same medication might have a different name in St Maarten, it is always wise to ask to speak to the Pharmacist when in doubt.

ST MAARTEN AMBULANCE TO THE RESCUE AGAIN, PHILIPSBURG ST MAARTEN photos judith roumou

Due to Dutch St Maarten's  FREE RUM IN THE HOT SUN POLICY and the world's WORST cobblestone road planning in HISTORY... during the tourist season you will see the ambulance in Philipsburg picking up the tourist who pass out, or tumble. It could be worst, they could charge you to blackout, but our wonderful Guavaberry Company provides Free rum sampling 9a.m. to 5 p.m. The BEST variety, highest quality Caribbean Rum........GO FOR IT!!!  This only happens once in a lifetime, unless you live in St Maarten-then it's every day

PHOTOS AND VIDEO WITH ALL RELEVANT INFO ON FREE HIV/AIDS TESTING IN ST MAARTEN video and photos judith roumou

VIDEO WITH ALL INFO FREE HIV AIDS TESTING

IF YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE IN ST MAARTEN OR CONDUCT BUSINESS HERE, YOU WILL HAVE TO ENDURE ST MAARTEN CENSUS HELL PHOTOS JUDITH ROUMOU

Anyone who chooses to live in St Maarten or conduct business in St Maarten will at some point have to go through what we all go through, it's called St Maarten Census Hell. It makes the American DMV line seem like paradise. Basically its hours, days, weeks of standing in line as strangers cough on you, babies scream and cry, and mishaving brats act out. You'll love it. I won't have to return until January 2014 :(

PHOTOS ST MAARTEN HEALTH MINISTER DR CORNELIUS DE WEEVER all photos judith roumou

We know Connie's running in 2014 :) There are many questions concerning Health Care in St Maarten. Connie de Weever is a pretty okay in my book. I'm no medical expert, but Dr Neville Labega de Weever is. So I've ask him to write up a list of questions for me to ask Dr Cornelius when I sit down and interview him.
photos:jroumou

HIV AIDS TESTING DAY IN ST MAARTEN DECEMBER 1 2013 HOW TO GET FREE TESTING

st maarten st martin hiv aids testing all details the caribbean
ST MAARTEN SINT MAARTEN ST MARTIN HEALTH, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
this videos shot by Judith Roumou blogger