By NewsDesk  @bactiman63

In a follow-up on the chikungunya outbreak in Chad, about 3,000 additional cases have been reported in the north-central African country.

Aedes aegypti/CDC

From July through 20 September 2020, a total of 27,540 cases were reported in three provinces, distributed as follows: 24,302 cases in the health district of Abéché, 3237 cases in the health district of Biltine, and one case in the health district of Abdi.

One death has been reported to date in district of Abéché.

In July 2020 health authorities were alerted to the occurrence of a disease-causing high fever, headache, intense and disabling joint pain, and sometimes associated with vomiting. It was eventually determined to be the chikungunya virus once it was confirmed in a 63-year-old female farmer. She had no reported travel outside of Abéché district. A total of 13 samples from Abéché district, Ouaddai Province, were sent for analysis at the N’Djamena mobile laboratory on 12 August 2020 and 11 samples tested positive for chikungunya virus.

The World Health Organization says chikungunya is an arboviral disease transmitted to humans by the bites of infected Aedes mosquitoes. The disease is characterized by an abrupt onset of fever frequently accompanied by joint pain and inflammation which is often very debilitating and may last for several months, or even years. Fatalities associated with infection can occur but are typically rare and most reported in older adults with underlying medical conditions or perinatally-infected infants. Some patients might have a relapse of rheumatologic symptoms (e.g. polyarthralgia, polyarthritis, and tenosynovitis) in the months following acute illness.

There is no specific antiviral treatment or commercially available vaccine for chikungunya.


 

Aedes aegypti mosquito