Chikungunya: Mostly nonfatal, no need to panic: docs

Mosquito-borne chikungunya is largely nonlethal but it may turn fatal if a person diagnosed with the disease is simultaneously found to have immunodeficiency, or carries another disease or infection, said a health expert yesterday.

Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, said “the mortality rate from chikungunya is very rare”.

People recorded succumbing to the disease in India last year were found, in further analysis, to be carrying other diseases or infections alongside chikungunya, she told journalists at IEDCR office in the city's Mohakhali area.

“[People] die from other diseases,” she added while addressing a briefing at the IEDCR held by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to inform journalists about precautions and consequences of the disease.

Panic spread among people in recent days as many citizens of Dhaka with symptoms of the viral disease thronged hospitals.

Prof Sabrina said they have recorded a positive 86 out of 139 chikungunya cases between April 1 and May 17 this year.

Most of the patients with symptoms are from Kalabagan, Kathalbagan and Hatirpool areas where an outbreak of the virus occurred last December, she said.

Speaking at the briefing, Abul Kalam Azad, director general of DGHS, urged people not to panic about the disease.

He said they have started awareness building programmes across the country and in the capital to control the disease.

Citizens need to keep their households clean so that mosquitoes cannot breed, he said.

Symptoms of chikungunya are fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue, rash and often accompanied by a very debilitating joint pain which can last for days. Aedes aegypti mosquito is the carrier of both chikungunya and dengue viruses.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), there is no cure for the disease. Treatment is focused on relieving the symptoms.

Society of Medicine, Bangladesh President Prof Khan Abul Kalam Azad, who also addressed the briefing, said although both chikungunya and dengue are mosquito-borne diseases, they can be indentified separately by observing the symptoms of patients.

If a person suddenly gets fever, mild or otherwise, feels pain and swelling in joints, and has rashes, then it can be suspected that s/he has chikungunya, said the professor.

If the pain is in the muscles and is accompanied with a high fever, it indicates that the patient may have dengue, he said.

“Laboratory test will be needed for confirmation,” he added.

Prof Sanya Tahmina, director of Disease Control and Line Director of CDC, DGHS, also spoke at the briefing.