Last summer the residents of Castiglione di Cervia, a small village in northern Italy, were suddenly stricken by a temporarily debilitating disease that was unknown to local medical authorities.  Following the death of several villagers, and the subsidence of the outbreak, the disease was eventually identified as Chikungunya, a disease with symptoms similar to Dengue fever.   Both Chikungunya and Dengue fever are mosquito borne, viral diseases, previously known to  occur only in the tropics.  Its appearance in Europe is apparently due to Global Warming and the "globalization" of commerce and travel.