Health experts today 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 been 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.

“We get 30 to 35 samples for chikungunya case every day. Of the samples, the rate of positive cases is 60 to 70 percent,” he added.

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.

Many people spend money unnecessarily for laboratory tests as they lack knowledge on the disease, he added.

Prof Tahmina Shirin of IEDCR said, “As per chikungunya sample tests, Dhaka city is witnessing a record number of chikungunya cases. This is the highest outbreak of the disease in Bangladesh,”

“We have to focus on preventive measures, including destroying mosquito breeding sources to check outbreak of chikungunya disease,” she added.

People should not get panicked over Chikungunya as there is no alarming clinical features of the disease, Prof Tahmina said adding that no emergency medical treatment requires for the diseases as it is easily curable.

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 other mosquito-borne diseases. After a particulate 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.

Director of IEDCR Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora said chikungunya is a viral disease which is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes.

Chikungunya was first described during an outbreak in southern Tanzania in 1952, she said, adding the outbreak of the disease has increased 30 times higher in the past 50 years.

Health experts said symptoms of the disease appear between four and seven days after a person is bitten by any infected mosquito. Chikungunya is characterised 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.bss