A Review on Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Chikungunya Virus

Chikungunya virus is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes chikungunya fever, a febrile illness associated with severe arthralgia and rash. Chikungunya virus is transmitted by culicine mosquitoes; Chikungunya virus replicates in the skin, disseminates to liver, muscle, joints, lymphoid tissue and brain, presumably through the blood. Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Like most mosquitoborne infections, the virus can only be transmitted by blood-to-blood contact, through a mosquito bite or transfusion with infected blood. The disease is characterized by the common symptoms involving rashes, nausea and headache. In addition to this, it also causes intense joint pain and fever, which is known as arthralgia. It is widely spread in America, Africa and all over the world. The onset of chikungunya fever is more intense and the period of illness is shorter than that of dengue fever. Recently, chikungunya has become a serious public threat. The chikungunya symptoms are usually self-limiting and prophylactic treatment is currently unavailable to cure the disease, although various allopathic medicines, such as NSAID’s, analgesics, steroids, DMARDs and some anti-viral drugs claim to treat the disease. However, these medicines provide only symptomatic relief with serious side effects. Nowadays, researchers focus more towards an alternative treatment. The present review aims to highlight the epidemiology of chikungunya, treatment options available, and potential of alternative medicines for its treatment.