Chikungunya is the name of a contagious virus most people in Hawaii are unfamiliar with.

We should do everything we can to keep it that way.

The virus, pronounced "chicken-gunyeah," comes from equatorial Africa. It causes severe joint pain and may be closer to Hawaii than most people would want to know. It affects infants and those over 40 disproportionately.

In Hawaii, because of the large numbers of elderly in our population, it would likely have a severe impact.

Related to dengue fever, it has now spread throughout the Caribbean and most recently to French Polynesia.

It is spread by dengue-carrying mosquitoes known as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (the tiger mosquito). According to the Department of Health of French Polynesia, more than 69,000 people — one-fourth of the population — have been affected, with 16 dead.

People there now fear going outside after dark without heavy insecticide such as DEET. A friend of mine who recently returned from Tahiti said, "I was terrified of getting Chikungunya there every day."

Actress Lindsay Lohan recently made global headlines when she contracted the disease while in Tahiti and was hospitalized.

The high-end yacht season there suffered cancellations last fall as a result of fear of the disease. There has also been an economic impact on tourism in Caribbean.

The disease spreads via air travel. People who have the disease and get bitten by this mosquito spread the virus.

It is now being seen on islands throughout the Pacific — most recently in Tonga, American Samoa and the Cook Islands — as well as in Florida on the U.S. mainland.

Flights come to and from affected areas weekly, so Hawaii is affected.

Hawaii hastaken a generally relaxed attitude towards resource management and vector control for the last 20 years of boom-and-bust budgeting. Positions cut were rarely replaced in an effort to balance budgets.

Vector control officers (employees with the Department of Health who are charged with spraying) have been cut by nearly every recent administration.

There are now only four officers working in the department for all of Oahu, 12 in the entire state. Little proactive action is being taken.

Hawaii should establish a Chikungunya task force to take proactive steps against the virus by increasing the number of vector control officers and taking whatever steps — such as spraying — are necessary to prevent it from getting established here.

It will be far more expensive to get rid of than it ever was to prevent.

Michael Markrich is a freelance writer based in Kailua.