Holidaymakers urged to be more conscious about chikungunya

Health experts today urged the homebound people, who are leaving Dhaka for celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, to keep clean their houses and remove all potential stagnant water sources to prevent the outbreak of chikungunya disease.

Director of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora said, "All holidaymakers should clean their houses and destroy potential water containers while they will leave for celebrating Eid with their dear and near ones."

Alongside cleaning their houses, holidaymakers, who are infected by chikungunya, should take adequate protection from mosquito bite, to check outbreak of the disease outside Dhaka, she added.

"Chikungunya outbreak is still limited in Dhaka city this year... But we fear that a huge number of people are leaving Dhaka to celebrate Eid. If chikungunya patients are not taking enough measures from mosquito bite, the disease could spread outside Dhaka," Prof Flora added.

"We have so far got 1930 chikungunya suspected cases till June 21 this year," she added.

Other health experts suggested destroying all potential mosquito breeding sources as the outbreak of chikungunya disease in the capital has increased sharply this year.

"A huge number of chikungunya cases have been reported in Dhaka city this season. The situation has remained unchanged since the outbreak of this mosquito-borne disease," Senior Scientific Officer of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Dr SM Alamgir told BSS.

Dr Alamgir said a massive awareness campaign is needed to destroy the breeding sources of mosquito for stopping outbreak of chikungunya disease.

"Alongside eliminating the breeding sources of mosquito, people should be educated on the diseases as there is no special treatment of the diseases," he said.

Chikungunya affected people should drink much water and take full rest.

"There is no need of any laboratory test as the diseases could be recognized easily by observing some common symptoms," Dr Alamgir added.

At a press conference held recently, Director General of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul kalam Azad, "Chikungunya is not serious like any other mosquito-borne diseases. After a particular time, patients get recovery without receiving any special medical treatment."

Chikungunya infected patients should not be admitted to hospitals and even they do not need to go to hospitals for any test to diagnose the disease, he added.

Chikungunya is a viral disease which is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Health experts said symptoms of the disease appear between four and seven days after a person is bitten by any infected mosquito.

Chikungunya is characterized by an abrupt onset of high fever frequently accompanied by joint pain. Other common signs and symptoms of the disease include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash, they said adding the joint pain is often very debilitating, but usually lasts for a few days or may be prolonged to weeks.

Hence the virus can cause acute, sub-acute or chronic disease.