Chikungunya Lurks In Indonesia

Posted on Mar 14, 2011

A total of 28 people from Gandamekar Village, Kadungora District, Garut regency, West Java suspected to be infected with chikungunya virus.

Garut District Health Department is investigating the case. “We received the report around 5.30 pm. At present, we can not confirm it because we still have to conduct further investigations,” said the Dikdik Hendrajaya Head of Informatics at Garut regency, on Sunday (03/13/2011).

The chikungunya disease symptoms include fever, rash occur, pain, and difficulty walking. However, at the moment the Health Department can not be sure 100% as similar symptoms can also be caused by other less vicious diseases.

Chikungunya Lurks In Indonesia

Bandung City Health Department has also asked people to stay alert to the attack of chikungunya disease which is predicted to last until March 2011. Until the last week of October 2010, the department has recorded 203 cases of patients with this disease that affecting the victims’ muscles function.

“We actually had reminded the public about the dangers of chikungunya in early October. We did fumigation or fogging at many affected areas and will continue to do so. However, fogging is not totally effective since it only kills adult mosquitoes off,” said Fetti. Because of that, she urged people to improve their hygiene in their homes and surrounding environment.

The increase of chikungunya cases and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are usually happen at the beginning of the rainy season. The virus that triggers both diseases is Aedes Aegypti mosquito who likes to live and thrive in pools of water.

Chikungunya while rarely lethal but crippling disease is prevalent in Indonesia where mosquitoes are just a fact of life. In August 2010 as much as 700 people in Kokap District, Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta were also infected with the disease.

The incubation period of Chikungunya disease is from two to five days. Symptoms of the disease include a fever up to 40 decree Celcius, rashes in various place of the body and arthritis affecting multiple joints.

Other symptoms such as joint pain, intense headache, insomnia and an extreme degree of prostration usually last for about 5 to 7 days while the joint pains can last for much longer, sometimes as long as 2 years, depending on the victims age.

There are no specific treatments for Chikungunya. There is no vaccine currently available. A Phase II vaccine trial, sponsored by the US Government and published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2000, used a live, attenuated virus, developing viral resistance in 98% of those tested after 28 days and 85% still showed resistance after one year.