If you are exposed to chikungunya infection once in your life, then you are safe for lifetime. According to doctors, the chikungunya virus has only one serotype (distinct variation within a species of virus) thus reducing the number of cases.
However, dengue’s threat is still existent as it has four serotype (Den 1, 2, 3, 4) causing infections four times.
“Since the chikungunya virus has only one serotype, whichever is the genotype, antibody is created for both Asian and African genotypes,” said Dr Ekta Gupta, Assistant Professor of Virology at Institute of liver and Biliary Sciences (IlBS).
Dengue strains are of four types Type I causes classic dengue fever, type II leads to haemorrhagic fever with shock, dengue III causes fever without shock and dengue IV causes fever without shock or profound shock. So, a person has a risk for four times for getting the disease, Dr Gupta said.
“Only one in 1,000 die in chikungunya and the vulnerable to this group is the people in the 60s and above, infants, people suffering from age-related diseases. People with malignancy and who are taking immunosuppressive drugs are also prone to death from chikungunya, said a WHO factsheets.
“It is a big outbreak since the 2006 virus was not here so, the people who were not exposed to this virus previously are now susceptible to it,” said Dr lalit Dar, Virologist at AIIMS.
Till date, AIIMS laboratory alone has tested nearly 3,000 blood samples of which 1,800 cases have confirmed positive for chikungunya virus.
last year, AIIMS laboratory suggested two of the most virulent strains of dengue-type II and type IV — circulated in Delhi, which affected more than 15,000 people and claimed 60 lives.