Rainy season, along with the beautiful showers, brings in the mosquitoes, Dengue and other viral fever cases. The latest addition to the list is chikunguniya. Chikunguniya is still unknown to a large population of India. With it’s large outbreak in India in 2006, it has affected about 3 million people so far.

The chikunguniya virus is passed on to human by Mosquitoes, same as in case of dengue. Common symptoms are high fever, joint pains and rashes. It’s not deadly as it does not affect the platelets counts like dengue but still makes people suffer for several days.

Currently no specific treatment for chikunguniya is available researchers are still working on the vaccine. Chikunguniya was a pretty obscure virus, only affecting a relatively small number of people and only in developing countries (which shouldn't be a factor in developing vaccines, but is), until about ten years ago. There are some technical difficulties in designing vaccine trials -- the disease hasn't been very predictable. So, if you get infected doctors would not be able to treat you. Number of cases is under reported. In Chennai blood samples of 1000 people were collected and 44% of them were found to have chikunguniya yet no one reported having infected.

The best means of prevention is overall mosquito control starting will the removal of accumulated water in neighbourhood. Government need sustained planning for year ahead.