Author: Ravi V
Department of Neurovirology, National Institute of Mental health and Neurosciences, Bangalore - 560 029, Karnataka, India
How to cite this article:
Ravi V. Re-emergence of Chikungunya virus in India. Indian J Med Microbiol 2006;24:83-84
Chikungunya virus is no stranger to the Indian sub-continent. Since its first isolation in Calcutta, in 1963, there have been several reports of chikungunya virus infection in different parts of India. The last outbreak of chikungunya virus infection occurred in India in 1971. Subsequently, there has been no active or passive surveillance carried out in the country and therefore, it 'seemed' that the virus had 'disappeared' from the subcontinent. However, recent reports of large scale outbreaks of fever caused by chikungunya virus infection in several parts of Southern India have confirmed the re-emrgence of this virus. It has been estimated that over 1,80,000 cases have occurred in India since December 2005. Andhra Pradesh (AP) was the first state to report this disease in December 2005, and one of the worst affected (over 80,000 suspected cases). Several districts of Karnataka state such as Gulbarga, Tumkur, Bidar, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Kolar and Bijapur districts have also recorded large number of chikungunya virus related fever cases. Over, 2000 cases of chikungunya fever have also been reported from Malegaon town in Nasik district, Maharashtra state, India between February-March 2006. During the same period, 4904 cases of fever associated with myalgia and headache have been reported from Orissa state as well.
Chikungunya is a relatively rare form of viral fever caused by an alphavirus that is spread by bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito. The name is derived from the Makonde word meaning "that which bends up" in reference to the stooped posture developed as a result of the arthritic symptoms of the disease. The disease was first described in 1952, following an outbreak on the Makonde Plateau, along the border between Tanganyika and Mozambique. Symptoms of this infection include abrupt onset of fever, chills, headache, and severe joint pain with or without swelling (usually the smaller joints), low back pain, and rash. The symptoms are most often clinically indistinguishable form those observed in dengue fever. Indeed, simultaneous isolation of both dengue and chikungunya from the sera of the same patients has been reported earlier indicating the presence of dual infections. Therefore it is very important to clinically distinguish dengue from chikungunya virus infection.
The precise reasons for the re-emergence of chikungunya in the Indian subcontinent as well as the other small countries in the southern Indian Ocean are an enigma. Although, it is well recognized that re-emergence of viral infections are due to a variety of social, environmental, behavioural and biological changes, which of these contributed to the re-emergence of chikungunya virus would be interesting to unravel.
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