Summer 2026 has produced an unusual public health picture on the CDC Travel Health Notices page: three simultaneous active travel notices for chikungunya — the mosquito-borne virus known for causing weeks of debilitating joint pain — across three different geographic regions. Suriname, a country on the northeastern coast of South America, has had an active chikungunya outbreak since February 2026. Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mozambique, has been under a CDC chikungunya notice since March 10, 2026. And French Guiana, the French overseas territory on the northern coast of South America adjacent to Brazil, received a new CDC travel notice for chikungunya on June 4, 2026 — just 10 days ago.
Three simultaneous active outbreaks across two continents and the Indian Ocean, all in destinations that receive American travelers during peak summer season, all involving the same virus, and all preventable by a vaccine that most American travelers have never heard of.
