Welcome to Wellness on Mass. I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire, and this is your weekly rundown. Well, the CDC has

issued a level two travel advisory. This is for mainland China, as well as Bolivia and some

nation islands off the Indian Ocean. And why is this? This is because of the Chikungunya virus.

Now, I know that sounds a little bit scary,

but the reality is this virus has been around since at least the 1950s. It's a mosquito-borne

illness, meaning you have to be bit by a mosquito to get it. We have not seen cases of human-to-human

transmission. So it's the summertime and tis the season for these vector-borne illnesses,

whether it's Lyme disease from ticks or chicken guinea, from mosquitoes or even Zika, dengue,

some of the other things. The good news is if you're in the United States and you don't have any

plan on traveling to some of these other countries, you probably don't need to

worry about it. Although I always try to protect myself and my family from mosquito bites,

not because of the diseases they carry, but I don't know, I just don't like being stung by mosquitoes.

They're itchy. If you are traveling to some of these other areas, you want to take some

precautions, specifically wearing long sleeve clothing,

make sure you're using mosquito controls, whether it's the Diet Sprays, whatnot, sleep with the net

around you because you don't want to get chicken guinea virus. I'll tell you why. It's a high fever

and also severe joint pain. Now, for most people, the joint pain does go away, but up to 60% of the time,

the joint pain can last weeks, if not months. So no, it's probably not going to kill you,

but it's not fun. You don't want to get it. You don't want to go on vacation, come back,

and then be sick for a couple of weeks. There are two vaccines that have been approved if you

want to prevent this illness,

if you have to travel. One vaccine is not recommended in kids or elderly because of some of the

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