All about Chikungunya

About Chikungunya

Chikungunya is a viral disease that is caused by the transmission of the virus from infected mosquitoes to humans.

Very often, it is misdiagnosed and confused with dengue, which is also a viral disease transmitted from infected mosquitoes, mainly due to overlapping symptoms.

However, dengue and chikungunya are different in nature and also have a different impact on the patient’s body.

The cause of chikungunya is simply the fact that some people’s habitation is near the area where infected mosquitoes breed, and this boosts the risks of the persons developing chikungunya.

Some of the most common symptoms of this disease include frequent headaches, nausea, joint aches that can have variable durations, development of rashes in different parts of the body, as well as frequent fatigue. Other than these, the most common and unbeatable symptom is high fever, which refuses to go away.

Up until now, there hasn’t been a relevant cure for the disease and treatment only follows relieving the symptoms in the affected patient’s body to lessen the impact of the disease.

The disease over the years has spread widely in Africa, Asia, as well as parts of Europe and America. It generally occurs in outbreaks, transmission happening in large numbers among the people.

Quite often it so happens that the early symptoms are only considered to be mild and flu due to season change, which actually increases the threat since the mild symptoms turn to acute and can turn into a chronic disease later on.

While patients do recover after proper medication and care, the joint ache is one symptom that tends to last longer, over a duration of weeks, months, or in worst cases, even years.

Additionally, reports of heart, eye, and neurological complications have also come to fore post recovery from chikungunya.

Prevention is highly essential during outbreaks of this disease, and this can be done through spraying insecticides to destroy the breeds of infected mosquitoes, stopping them from flying and spreading the virus, and also by moving habitats from areas of infected mosquito breeds.

Maximum clothing with minimum skin exposure is also a way to avoid mosquito bites during dire situations of outbreaks.