my mummy just educated me on the following:
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an insect-borne virus, that is transmitted to humans by virus-carrying Aedes mosquitoes. There have been recent outbreaks of CHIKV associated with severe morbidity. CHIKV causes an illness with symptoms similar to dengue fever. CHIKV manifests itself with a prolonged arthralgic disease that affects the joints of the extremities. The acute febrile (ie Fever) phase of the illness lasts only two to five days. The pain associated with CHIKV infection of the joints persists for weeks or months.
Signs and symptoms
The incubation period of Chikungunya disease is from two to four days. Symptoms of the disease include a fever up to 39 ℃ (102.2 ℉), a petechial or maculopapular rash of the trunk and occasionally the limbs, and arthralgia or arthritis affecting multiple joints. Other nonspecific symptoms can include headache, conjunctival injection, and slight photophobia. Typically, the fever lasts for two days and then ends abruptly. However, other symptoms, namely joint pain, intense headache, insomnia and an extreme degree of prostration last for a variable period; usually for about 5 to 7 days. Patients have complained of joint pains for much longer time periods depending on their age.
Causes
Chikungunya virus is indigenous to tropical Africa and Asia, where it is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes, usually of the genus Aedes. CHIK fever epidemics are sustained by human-mosquito-human transmission. The word "chikungunya" is thought to derive from description in local dialect of the contorted posture of patients afflicted with the severe joint pain associated with this disease. The main virus reservoirs are monkeys, but other species can also be affected, including humans.
- The first outbreak in India was in 1963 in Kolkata (Calcutta).
- An outbreak of chikungunya was also discovered in Port Klang in Malaysia in 1999 affecting 27 people.
- There was an outbreak in Italy late 2007, with 160 cases, and suspects about some human-to-human contaminations.
At the same time there was an outbreak in Kerala with 43,138 cases of suspected chikungunya. - On July 26, 2008, The West Australian newspaper reported that there had been 15 cases of the disease notified in Western Australia in the preceding two years, and that the virus had become established in local mosquito populations.
- And in recent days, four more Singaporeans has been found affected with it, adding the toll to 128 locally reported cases for the year 2008.
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