Pakistan at risk of chikungunya spurt

Some chikungunya cases were reported back in 2006

ISLAMABAD: National Institute of Health (NIH) has warned that Pakistan is at risk of being affected by chikungunya virus after India’s capital New Delhi is battling one of its worst outbreaks of the mosquito-borne virus.

No case of chikungunya virus has been reported from Pakistan so far, according to the NIH. According to media reports, so far over 1,000 cases of chikungunya virus have been registered in Delhi while there are reports of 10 deaths.

A senior vector control expert at the NIH, while talking to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, urged the government to keep vigil on people travelling from Delhi to Pakistan through roads or air routes.

He said currently there is no system at international airports or at the Wagah border crossing to screen people for this disease who are coming from Delhi.

“There is a risk that the virus will be imported to new areas by infected travellers; therefore, there is a need that the Pakistani government should chalk out a strategy to check for people infected with chikungunya virus at airports or at Wagah,” he said.

He added that if a single person infected with chikungunya virus would enter into Pakistan, he or she could become a source of its spread in the country. He said back in 2006 a few cases of chikungunya virus were reported in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, sharing details about the chikungunya virus, he said the virus is most often spread to people by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.

“These are the same mosquitoes that spread dengue fever; however, chikungunya virus is not fatal unlike dengue.” he said.

Moreover there is a slight difference between the symptoms of dengue fever and chikungunya virus, he said. The person infected with chikungunya virus will develop symptoms like severe joint pain, fever rashes, headache, joint swelling among others.

Moreover, a person bitten by an infected dengue mosquito will develop symptoms like sudden high fever, pain behind the eyes, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and acute muscular pain among others.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2016.