Chikungunya disease vaccine may become available at Florida pharmacies
News Service of Florida, Author at NBC2 News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —
The Florida Department of Health is proposing a rule to allow pharmacists to administer a vaccine for chikungunya disease.
Chikungunya disease, a viral infection, is a mosquito-borne illness that can cause fever and severe joint pain. It can be confused with dengue and Zika, which makes the illness hard to diagnose, according to the World Health Organization.
In Florida, there have been 189 reported cases of chikungunya disease so far this year, according to DOH’s reportable diseases frequency report.
Most of those cases, 120, were reported in Miami-Dade County.
About 92 of the cases were reported in January of this year.
Collier County has seen seven reported cases, while Lee County has seen four and Charlotte County has seen just one case this year.
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