Reaction Paper About Chikungunya

Chikungunya is a bacterial disease that is transmitted to people by mosquitoes. Outbreaks usually have occurred in countries such as Africa, Asia, Europe and areas close to the Indian and Pacific oceans. In late 2013, America had their first patient that had the virus chikungunya. It was found on the islands in the Caribbean’s. Travelers that travel the world are at high risk of getting this bacterial virus chikungunya. There is no vaccine or any type of medications that can prevent the bacterial disease, so travelers need to prevent themselves from getting bit by mosquitoes that carry the virus. The main and only way chikungunya can be transmitted is through mosquito’s bites. The mosquitoes that cause chikungunya carry Aaedes aegypt and Aaedes albopictus. These are the same type of mosquitoes that can transmit Dengue Fever. These types of mosquitoes are found throughout the world but mostly in countries like India and Africa. The insects become infected with the virus when they feed or bite people that already have the virus and then they spread the virus by biting others. The mosquitoes can be seen biting through the daytime hours and their peak activity is in the early morning and late afternoons.
The enzyme- linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA test) can confirm the presence of IgM and IgG anti-chikungunya antibodies. The levels of IgM are going to be the highest in the third to fifth week. If the test is done earlier on then those weeks then the result can be incorrect. They should also be tested by both the serological and virological methods (RT-PCR) the reason the test may be incorrect the first couple of weeks is due to the virus being isolated from the blood. The various reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) can be used for genotyping of the virus, which can allow comparisons of virus samples from different geographical