An Emerging Threat of Dengue and Chikungunya Co-infection: Need of Developing a Pre-diagnostic Screening Tool
Sumit Sohal *
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India.
Avneet Randhawa
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India.
Aanchal Wats
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India.
Vedha Sanghi
Department of Gastroenterology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Arun Yadav
Clinical Epidemiology Unit, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Dengue and Chikungunya infections have caused large outbreaks globally and millions of people have been affected worldwide. They are transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus and can cause potentially severe acute illnesses and or debilitating chronic disease. Coinfection with both diseases is not new and has been reported on patients from Asian, African and Pacific countries. The need to differentiate between two infections is also very important because minute differences in treatment and, misdiagnosis can hamper epidemiological understanding of both diseases.
Use of symptoms differentiation, scoring systems and simple laboratory parameters is discussed in this article which can be used to accurately identify cases of mono and co-infections. The paper emphasizes on development of a pre-screening diagnostic criteria to differentiate between these two diseases which will not only reduce unnecessary testing but will also prevent misdiagnosis.
Keywords: Dengue, chikungunya, aedes, coinfection, disease outbreaks, public health.