Those who are most likely to get chikungunya are older adults 65 years of age or older, people with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and neonates exposed intrapartum.
Chikungunya is not contagious like other viruses as you only get chikungunya through the bite of the mosquito called the Aedes aegypti mosquito and the Aedes albopictus mosquito.
The Chikungunya virus cannot be and is not transmitted from person to person.
The difference between chikungunya and dengue virus is chikungunya virus is caused by a Togaviridae alphavirus and Dengue virus is caused by a Flavirideae flavivirus.
However dengue and chikungunya are carried by the same type of mosquito but are caused by different viruses.
The incubation period for the chikungunya virus is 1 to 12 days and the duration of the virus ranges from 1 week to 2 weeks.
The chikungunya virus causes severe joint pain and fever and can also cause other symptoms such as joint swelling, muscle pain, nausea, headache, fatigue and rash.
The chikungunya virus does go away and most people recover within a week from chikungunya although some people have joint pain for months or sometimes longer.
In frail older adults chikungunya virus may even lead to death.
You can get chikungunya in the US as it's a mosquito borne illness and mosquitoes are common in the U.S.
Anywhere there are mosquitoes there is a risk of getting chikungunya.
The virus that causes chikungunya is the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), which is an RNA virus in the alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae.
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease that you contract from mosquitoes when they bite you.
Symptoms of chikungunya usually appear within a week of infection.
Fever and joint pain come on suddenly and muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and rash also may occur when a person is infected with chikungunya.
Chikungunya virus is an alphavirus, which is a genus in the Togaviridae family of viruses3-6.
The family is comprised of enveloped, singled-stranded RNA viruses10.
Dengue virus is in the genus flavivirus in the family Flaviviridae1-3.
Viruses of the flavivirus genus are linear, single- stranded, positive-sense RNA11.
Most people infected with chikungunya feel better within a week.
However, joint pain can be severe and disabling and may persist for months.
Death from chikungunya is rare.
Swelling and pain is high in Chikungunya as compared to that in Dengue.
Chikungunya can cause tremendous joint pain.
Whereas Dengue can cause bleeding in some cases, breathing problems, etc.
The name chikungunya derives from a word in the Kimakonde language, meaning “to become contorted”.
The good news is chikungunya rarely causes serious problems or death.
Many people get better within a couple of weeks.
But others have joint and muscle pain that can last for months or years after they've been infected with the virus.
Home remedies for chikungunya include.
Epsom salt soak.
Turmeric.
Ginger.
Coconut water.
Tulsi (Basil Leaves)
Sunflower seeds and Honey.
In the case of chikungunya, the platelet count may drop slightly and can be characterized by the platelet count which is lower than 150,000 platelets per microliter of blood.