All About Chikungunya Fever

Chikungunya (pronounced as chiki-en-gun-yah) is a viral disease spread by Aedes aegypti / albopictus mosquito bites. This is the same mosquito that transmits Dengue and Yellow Fever. The illness occurs usually between 4 to 10 days after the mosquito bite and infection lasts for next 7 to 10 days. Chikungunya disease is not life threatening but in older people, the disease may cause death. Patient gets life long immunity from infection so re-infection is very rare.

Chikungunya Symptoms

Usual symptoms in chikungunya are - shivering, high fever, vomiting, nausea, head ache, muscle pain, rashes (on face, arms, legs & back), swelling in joints and joint pain. The fever usually subsides in 2-3 days, but other symptoms may last for a longer time. The main symptom, severe joint pain is the most problematic symptom of Chikungunya. Hands, wrists and ankles are most frequently affected areas. In some cases, joint pain may be prolonged to weeks/months/years.

Chikungunya has some common symptoms with dengue, and can be misdiagnosed in areas where dengue is common.

Chikungunya Treatment

There is no specific antiviral drug, vaccine or medicine available for Chikungunya. Treatment is focused on relieving the symptoms. Patients are advised to take complete rest, take more liquid food and medicines to relieve pain (paracetamol).

The treatment is focused on relieving joint pains using anti-pyre-tics, analgesics and fluids. The symptoms are common in chikungunya and dengue so, it's difficult to differentiate symptoms from Dengue. Therefore, it is advised not to take any non steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine like aspirin, diclofenac and ibuprofen until Dengue is ruled out. Else these medicines can cause platelets to fall.

Ayurveda and homeopathy have specific treatments for Chikungunya. Most of the treatments are helpful in reducing the symptoms specially the joint pain.

Prevention and control

We all know that Prevention is the better than cure. The Aedes albopictus mosquitoes use indoor sites like flower vases and water storage vessels for breeding. The mosquitoes also breed in outdoor areas like stagnant water, coconut husks, water in pots and coolers. It is important to keep these areas clean and dry. For protection during outbreaks, insecticides may be sprayed to kill flying mosquitoes and to treat water in containers to kill the immature larvae.

Chikungunya causing mosquitoes are active during daytime, mostly in the early mornings and late afternoon. So it is important to wear long-sleeved clothes to minimize skin exposure. Use repellents, mosquito coils to prevent mosquito bites. For people specially babies and children who nap during the day, using mosquito nets can also prevent from mosquito bites.