re: Honeymoon destination ideas in the Caribbean/Bahamas, etc. - need help

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The virus is chikungunya, derived from an African word that loosely translates as ‘‘contorted with pain.’’ People encountering it in the Caribbean for the first time say the description is fitting. While the virus is rarely fatal it is extremely debilitating.

‘‘It is terrible, I have never in my life gotten such an illness,’’ said Maria Norde, a 66-year-old woman confined to bed at her home on the lush eastern Caribbean island of Dominica. ‘‘All my joints are in pain.’’

Outbreaks of the virus have long made people miserable in Africa and Asia. But it is new to the Caribbean, with the first locally transmitted case documented in December in French St. Martin, likely brought in by an infected air traveler. Health officials are now working feverishly to educate the public about the illness, knock down the mosquito population, and deal with an onslaught of cases.

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