The number of chikanguniya cases have increased in Delhi as also in several other parts of the country said A.C.Dhariwal, Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP).
A typical chikungunya syndromes include high-grade fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain and headache, joint swelling, or rash. It is not as dangerous as dengue in which there is a risk of bleeding. During the press conference at AIIMS Health experts appealed to public not to panic.
“Number of cases of chikanguniya testing positive in AIIMS lab itself shows the situation, and even in case dengue, I would say, people should not panic,” the NVBDCP Director.
Health experts have attributed the rise to a possible “evolution” in the virus that carries this disease and change in weather factors like humidity.
The disease is caused by the same aedes aegypti mosquito which causes dengue but the difference is that dengue virus had four strains while chikanguniya has only one,” told National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) Director, A C Dhariwal,.
As informed by doctor at AIIMS “From July 1 to August 10, we tested 325 blood samples in our labs, out of which 188 were found positive for chikanguniya,”
Dhariwal says the rise in the cases this year could be because of chikanguniya virus showing some evolution compared to last year and weather conditions proving conducive to its growth.
“In this case, what we call the incubation period, the time it takes for the virus to develop the disease syndromes after it enters a patient following a mosquito bite, may have been reduced, resulting in spike in cases. In dengue case, on the other hand, the incubation period is longer compared to chikanguniya,” he said.
Though hospital have reported large number of chikanguniya cases, the municipal corporation of Delhi has only reported “20 cases” till August 20.
North Corporation has reported 2 case, South Corporation 13 and East Corporation one while New Delhi Municipal Council 4, according to a municipal report released today by the SDMC.
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