THE Ministry of Health says the rapidly spreading chikungunya virus is here to stay and that between 38 to 68 per cent of the population will become infected.

“The population has never been affected by Chik-V before so a majority of the population will be affected,” Dr Kevin Harvey, the acting permanent secretary in the ministry, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

Dr Harvey said that the virus has now become endemic to Jamaica and will remain with us. However, he said that it will not morph into a more potent strain and that an individual can only be infected once.

There is no cure for the virus and vaccines being developed internationally are nowhere near the approval stage for mass usage, Dr Harvey said.

Additionally, Harvey reierated that the virus — which is transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and causes severe joint pains, high fever and rashes — cannot be transmitted from person to person.

The health ministry said that there are 35 confirmed cases of chikungunya and some 300 suspected cases.

However, the figures have been widely disputed by members of the public and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, who believe the cases are in the several thousands.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson appealed to medical practitioners in private practice to report all suspected cases of chikungunya.

Addressing a Think Thank hosted by the the State-run Jamaica Information Service, Ferguson said that many private doctors were not reporting the suspected cases, which is posing a challenge to the ministry’s records.