Chikungunya

  Chikungunya

  P.K. Ghatak, MD.

People in Tanzania who speak a derivative of Bantu language describe a febrile illness as “Bend over in pain” due to crushing bone pain. Chikungunya and Dengue have many similarities - in the clinical presentation, mode of transmission by infected Aedes mosquito bite, about the virus (though belong to a separate category), has a similar single stranded RNA strand, no effective antiviral agent is available, and no vaccine is made so far. An important difference between the two is that the majority of Chikungunya cases are benign and last only 3 to 5 days. Skin rashes are common, appear as red bumps all over the body, including palms and soles. Only a very few patients suffer from chronic ill joint and muscle pain in post acute phase. Post infection immunity lasts for life.

Chikungunya began in Tanzania, Africa in 1952, The virus mutated into 3 forms in Africa. Later, in 1963 the virus spread to Calcutta, India and subsequently spread to other Asian countries. In 2013 the Asian variety appeared in the USA. Now in South American countries have a different mutated form. A large section of the population of the world are at a risk of contacting Chikungunya wherever Aedes mosquitos are present.

Diagnosis of Chikungunya is by detecting the viral antigen and IgM and IgG antibodies.

A new vaccine, Ixchia is approved on 11/11/23 in the USA for people travelling to endemic areas of the world.

************************************************