Bug of the Month: I Like to Hitch a Ride

Bug of the Month helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens of clinical importance in health care facilities today. Each column explores the Bug of the Month's etiology, the infections it can cause, the modes of transmission, and ways to fight its spread. The pathogen profiles will span bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic species. We encourage you to use Bug of the Month as a teaching tool to help educate health care personnel and start a dialogue about microbiology-related imperatives.

Ouch! While you were outside enjoying a warm summer evening, a pesky little mosquito seemed to have found just the right spot of uncovered, exposed skin to lay a bite on you. You didn’t know this, but I rode silently, tucked away in the saliva of that darling mosquito. I prefer to hitch a ride with my close companions, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. They are the perfect winged chauffeurs for my journey. They were looking for a delicious snack, but I had other ruinous plans.

While you itched and itched that mosquito’s bite for the next few days, I began knocking and knocking on various doors in your body. I told your body, “Make more of me,” and before long, I had built an impressive army. At first, no one had noticed me, but after my army was majestically built, your immune system detected me and my soldiers. The temperature in your body began to rise slowly at first, then rapidly. Your skin began to grow hot, and still I had more plans for you.

Soon, your joints began to ache with a deep, throbbing pain. Swelling followed, stiff and unrelenting. Your wrists, ankles, and knees felt like they were on fire. It troubled you to stand or even to grab a glass of water. I bring the kind of crippling pain that makes people walk hunched over, and those who first encountered me named me to mean “that which bends up” in the Makonde language.

Over the next few days, waves of muscle pain rolled through you. Nausea crept in without warning, leaving your stomach uneasy and your appetite gone. Pounding headaches pulsed behind your eyes like a relentless drumbeat, making it hard to think or even rest. A fatigue came for you that wrapped you like a heavy blanket, refusing to let go.

After days of misery, you finally mustered the strength to get up and drag yourself to the doctor. Every step felt like wading through wet cement with your stiff, screaming joints. You explained to them your fever, burning joints, and crushing fatigue, but even they looked uncertain. I am tricky that way. My symptoms can mimic other illnesses like Dengue and Zika, without specialized testing.

Once they checked your vitals and ran those labs, you waited, aching and hoping for answers. At last, the test results came back, unmasking me as the culprit of your ailments. The doctor could not get rid of me directly, but they worked to ease the pain and slowly dwindle the suffering I had caused.

You are just one of over 100,000 cases of me each year. I have been identified in over 110 countries, but I was first discovered in Tanzania in 1952.

Who am I?

Check out the author reading the article and identify which bug is speaking in this installment of the Bug of the Month!