need to mention, I finally got the proper information about my friend.
She contracted something called the Chikungunya virus, mosquito borne, while visiting an island off the coast of Colombia called Curacao, about two years ago, not that far from Guyana, but I don't know if this is a problem in Guyana and Suriname also.
Many years ago, she had the bad luck of getting Dengue fever, another mosquitoe borne one.
both not really fun, and both with joint pain and all that jazz.