It’s suspected that the Chikungunya viral fever which affected lakhs of people in India in 2006 may now reach newer domains within the country as well as in the west. This time around the Chikungunya virus can spread through a new agent or vector not known to be its transporter earlier, claim researchers from the University of Texas. The explanation put forward by them is that the Chikungunya virus has mutated.  

 

Earlier the Chikungunya viral fever was said to be caused by the alphavirus spread by the bites of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. However, the mutated Virus form can now make use as its transporter a different breed of mosquitoes – the Aedes Albopictus, also called the Asian tiger mosquito. This finding by the researchers from the University of Texas establishes the claim of the Kerala health authorities that Chikungunya spreads rapidly in areas breeding tiger mosquitoes.

 

The Chikungunya disease is quite similar to that of Dengue in its symptoms and can be distinguished by acute and at times continuous pain in the body joints accompanied by fever and rashes. It is further leant that because of extensive scattering of the Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, the mutation has hiked up the chances of the Chikungunya virus entering Europe and the Americas.