DAR ES SALAAM, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Tanzania on Monday alerted the public over an outbreak of a deadly disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes.
Four people have been diagnosed with the disease called Chikungunya, the east African nation's health minister Ummy Mwalimu told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Mwalimu said the four people diagnosed with the viral disease were recently entering Tanzania from Mombasa through Tanga region.
"Laboratory tests of their blood samples proved that they had chikungunya virus," she said.
"There are no vaccines for treating the disease. We can only treat the symptoms and if the patient is not rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment he or she may lose life," said Mwalimu.
The minister asked people not to panic following the outbreak of the disease saying the government has already taken control measures along the country's border entries.
"Nobody has died from the disease to date," said Mwalimu, adding that symptoms of the disease included fever, severe joint pains, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and skin rashes.
She said the disease was first reported in the country's southern region of Mtwara in 1952.
Mwalimu also provided an update of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus, saying 226 patients have been diagnosed with the fever between January and June this year.
She said all the 226 patients were found with dengue fever in Dar es Salaam.