The Dreaded Chikungunya
I like them not. Mosquito by Kelly Watson
When I first heard of Chikungunya I thought it was a joke. It is a laughable name given to a very serious disease, now an epidemic in Sri Lanka. They say that Chikungunya doesn’t kill, but I know elderly and middle aged people who it has killed. Besides that, it’s knocked whole families I know into bed, sick with fever and aching legs and joints. Many of their bones still ache after the fever has passed. He seems horrible and worse, common. I’m sure everyone in Sri Lanka knows someone with the angry chicken, probably intimately. Chikungunya spreads like dengue, but it seems to be under the radar and spreading fast. In short, it sucks and I am hiding under my mosquito net.
Wikipedia, as usual, has more solid roundup, but as yet this is what I know.
The Angry Chicken is transmitted by mosquitoes active in the day (so I hear). Avoid them and you avoid the goon. Of course, a lot depends on where you live. I personally know of who familys getting the goon in Nawala, Mount Lavinia, with a particular focus on Achchi’s houses. The best prevention would prolly be DDT spraying (it’s OK now) of houses and mosquito nets, but you still can’t control your neighbors. Also, the recent rains have meant that mosquitoes are on a breed.
The only treatment I know is to rest and stay in bed. In fact, I think the fever and joint pain are so bad for 5-7 days that you can’t get out of bed. There is no particular medicine, except Pandol and a type of quinine, so stock up on the gin and tonic. What’s criminal is that there was a vaccine trial in 2000, discontinued for lack of funds. I know this is South Asia, but even we have lost enough productivity this month to cover the cost of studies.
I just hope it will pass and leave me untouched, and you and yours.
The word comes from the Makonde language,
[...] Having affected large parts of India, chikungunya is now in Sri Lanka. indi.ca says “When I first heard of Chikungunya I thought it was a joke. It is a laughable name given to a very serious disease, now an epidemic in Sri Lanka.” Neha Viswanathan [...]
Are you sure that quinine can be used for treatement? Quinine is famously effective against malaria – I don’t think that it has any benefits against the dreaded Chikungunya. Note that malaria is caused by a plasmodium parasite whilst Chikungunya is a virus, so they have a different biological/chemical make up and are unlikely to respond to quinine in the same way. Panadol only reduces the symptoms of the fever, I don’t believe there is any actual treatment for it. Dengue is also a virus and is also spread by the same mosquito (so, incidently, is the yellow fever virus) whilst Malaria is spread by the anopheles mosquito (a different species). They may be confused as they are both spread by mosquitoes and the incidences of the different diseases often have geographical overlaps, this is more to do with the similarity of ecology of the different vectors (mosquitoes) rather than any connection between the diseases themselves. I believe that aedes mosquitoes are more active during dusk and dawn, while those litle fuckers the anopheles mosquitoes tend to provide the pleasure of their company through the night as well, so make sure you light a coil before you go to bed and be wary of any buzzing about in the early morning when you get up too.
damn.. i got chickungunya and missed my bloody end of term exams.. (well thats some thing good actually!).. but the pain after the fever was horrible.. all i could think of is to sue the ppl who discontinued to fund to the researchers who were finding for a vaccine!!
when this starts spreading towards the west, then may be something would be done.. but all we could do is wait and see :-(
PS – on the issue of DDT spraying being the best preventative measure, there is a long and bitter debate over the use of DDT to control mosquitoes (mainly with regards to Malaria in Sub Saharan Africa) due to its long term effects on human health and the environment. It’s not actually “OK” now, though the WHO have sanctioned it officially this year. See link [here] for discussion:
In the case of malaria, due the fact that you are preventing a deadly disease that costs hundreds of thousands of lives annually, the argument may be stronger, however I don’t know if it should be encouraged as a policy with regards to Chikungunya – atrocious town planning and drainage should be tackled in the first instance, and there is little awareness or personal responsibility with regards to minimising the prevalance of bodies of standing water. I suppose the government could take more of a role in this but they are too busy blowing the fuck out of the north east, along with Prabakharan and his band of merry men. Why stop people getting sick when your national obsession is blowing them into oblivion?
i got the goon. was down for a couple of weeks. thanks to the doc that lives by i was relieved ALOT of pain coz of a pain killer vaccine i was given.
The way sri lankans take up on new words like this is just pathetic. like they made a song for the tsunami they have made one for chickun gunia too..
my relatives are in coimbatore (Tamilnadu,India)and recently(dec 20,2006) being affected by chickungunya . It looks like it still hasn’t been controlled in coimbatore. They are suffering very badly. its been 2 weeks,since they were admitted in hospital.more than a week in Intensive care unit.
various symptoms are seen. including adhoc memory loss.
hope its controlled soon, before it comes another round..
2007 11. 25 – Chikungunya is a virus still not identified properly in the whole world. There are so many complications in the long term. Joint pains, severe allergic symptoms, pain behind the ear and eyes, haring loss due to flem behind ears, muscular pains, itchy rashses on legs and hands reoccur in infected people even after 1 year. Still new symptoms emerge that doctors are clueless. But western medicine so far has failed to bring about an answer yet. They treat the symptoms and the diffrent symptoms emerge. Severe allergic conditions have lead to Kidney falier in many and kidney malfunction has lead to heart attacks. The cause is unidentified viral resedue left behind by the Chkungunya.