Prevalence of Chikungunya and Scrub Typhus Coinfection among Dengue Negative Patients in Kolkata, India-A Newly Emerging Public Health Hazard

Prevalence of Chikungunya and Scrub Typhus Coinfection among Dengue Negative Patients in Kolkata, India-A Newly Emerging Public Health Hazard



HTML
46

Total
43

Citations

Share

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##

The chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and scrub typhus infection has scattered worldwide creating human health hazards in India and Asia specific region. We aimed to identify chikungunya, scrub typhus, and their co-infection in dengue-negative samples having undifferentiated febrile illnesses.

Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods were used to detect the chikungunya and scrub typhus specific IgM antibody by using chikungunya IgM capture ELISA kit and scrub typhus IgM Microlisa ELISA kit, respectively. OD value was measured with the help of BeneSphera (India) ELISA microplate reader.

Among 490 suspected patients, 57 (11.63%) samples were tested positive for chikungunya IgM antibodies, while 43 (8.77%) came positive for scrub typhus IgM antibodies, but all samples tested negative for dengue IgM antibodies. Additionally, 5% of the total positive cases were positive for both chikungunya and scrub typhus infection.

Our study offers a hypothesis regarding one of the possible causes of the decline in the frequency of scrub typhus and chikungunya cases reported in Kolkata and other districts of West Bengal. As an outcome, physicians treating undifferentiated febrile patients in endemic locations should look for chikungunya, scrub typhus, and existing coinfection between them to avoid delayed diagnosis and provide proper treatment against these infections.

Keywords: Chikungunya Virus Coinfection Dengue Virus Febrile Illness Scrub Typhus
  1. Annual report of hospital based surveillance of acute febrile illness in India in. Manipal Centre for Virus Research. [Internet] 2017. [cited 2022 January 21] Available from: https://manipal.edu/miv/research/projects/AFIstudy.html.
     Google Scholar 
  2. Robinson ML, Kadam D, Khadse S, Balasubramanian U, Raichur P, Valvi C, al. Vector-borne disease is a common cause of hospitalized febrile illness in India. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2018; 98(5): 1526-33.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  3. Mohan A. Chikungunya fever: clinical manifestations & management. Indian J Med Res. 2006; 124: 471-474.
     Google Scholar 
  4. Pialoux G, Gauzere BA, Jaureguiberry S, Strobel M. Chikungunya, an epidemic arbovirosis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2007; 7: 319-327.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  5. Padbidri VS, Gnaneswar TT. Epidemiological investigations of chikungunya epidemic at Barsi, Maharashtra state, India. J Hyg Epidemiol Microbiol Immunol. 1979; 23(4): 445-51.
     Google Scholar 
  6. Pavri K. Disappearance of Chikungunya virus from India and South East Asia. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1986; 80(3): 491.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  7. Khatun T, Panja AS, Chatterjee RP, Chatterjee S. Chikungunya declining in West Bengal, India: A retrospective study (2010-2014). Int. Res J Bio Sci. 2016; 5(7): 1-4.
     Google Scholar 
  8. Walker DH. Scrub typhus - scientific neglect, ever-widening impact. N Engl J Med. 2016; 375(10): 913-5.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  9. Pathak S, Chaudhary N, Dhakal P, Shakya D, Dhungel P, Neupane G, et al. Clinical profile, complications and outcome of scrub typhus in children: A hospital based observational study in central Nepal. PLoS One. 2019; 14(8): e0220905.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  10. Morch K, Manoharan A, Chandy S, Chacko N, Alvarez-Uria G, Patil S, et al. Acute undifferentiated fever in India: a multicentre study of aetiology and diagnostic accuracy. BMC Infect Dis. 2017; 17(1): 665.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  11. Xu G, Walker DH, Jupiter D, Melby PC, Arcari CM. A review of the global epidemiology of scrub typhus. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2017; 11(11): e0006062.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  12. Mahajan SK. Scrub typhus. J Assoc Physicians India. 2005; 53: 954-8.
     Google Scholar 
  13. Bonell A, Lubell Y, Newton PN, Crump JA, Paris DH. Estimating the burden of scrub typhus: a systematic review. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2017; 11(9): e0005838.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  14. Khan SA, Bora T, Chattopadhyay S, Jiang J, Richards AL, Dutta P. Seroepidemiology of rickettsial infections in Northeast India. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2016; 110(8): 487-94.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  15. Dey M, Sengupta M, Chatterjee RP, Sarkar S, Chatterjee SB. Co-Circulation of All Dengue Serotypes among Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kolkata. Virology & Immunology Journal. 2018; 2(9).
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  16. Simmons CP, Farrar JJ, Nguyen V, Wills B. Dengue. N Engl J Med. 2012; 366(15): 1423-32.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  17. Zeller H, Van Bortel W, Sudre B. Chikungunya: its history in Africa and Asia and its spread to new regions in 2013-2014. J Infect Dis. 2016; 214(suppl 5): S436-40.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  18. Mavalankar D, Shastri P, Bandyopadhyay T, Parmar J, Ramani KV. Increased mortality rate associated with chikungunya epidemic, Ahmedabad, India. Emerg Infect Dis. 2008; 14(3): 412-415.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  19. Gogia A, Sairam B, Kakar A. Chikungunya: a mortality report. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2017; 4(Suppl 1): S518.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  20. Renault P, Josseran L, Pierre V. Chikungunya-related fatality rates, Mauritius, India, and Reunion Island. Emerg Infect Dis. 2008; 14(8): 1327.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  21. Chaudhry R, Thakur CK, Gupta N, Sagar T, Bahadur T, Wig N, et al. Mortality due to scrub typhus - report of five cases. Indian J Med Res. 2019; 149(6): 790-794.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  22. Pathak S, Chaudhary N, Dhakal P, Yadav SR, Gupta BK, Kurmi OP. Comparative Study of Chikungunya Only and Chikungunya-Scrub Typhus Coinfection in Children: Findings from a Hospital-Based Observational Study from Central Nepal. Int J Pediatr. 2021; 2021: 6613564.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  23. Rao PN, Van Eijk AM, Choubey S, Ali SZ, Dash A, Barla P, et al. Dengue, chikungunya, and scrub typhus are important etiologies of non-malarial febrile illness in Rourkela, Odisha, India. BMC Infectious Diseases. 2019; 19(1): 1-3.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  24. Annual Administrative Report 2019-20. [Internet] 2022 Available from: http://westbengalforest.gov.in//upload/publication/AnnualAdminReport2019-20.pdf.
     Google Scholar 
  25. Chatterjee RP, Chatterjee A, Chakraborty N, Chatterjee S. A Sero-epidemiological insight into the current status and rapid dissemination of Chikungunya virus infection in West Bengal – a two years retrospective study. Int J Sci Res. 2017; 6(9).
     Google Scholar 
  26. Mukherjee S, Dash A, Tiwari S. Seropositivity of scrub typhus in patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Western Odisha. J Evolution Med Dent Sci. 2020; 9(04): 178-181.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  27. Mallick S, Hazra S, Nandi T, Sarkar A. Scrub typhus: a hospital-based study in the northern districts of West Bengal, India. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences. 2019; 7(6): 2403-2407.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  28. Sengupta S, Mukherjee S, Haldar SK, Bhattacharya N, Tripathi A (2020). Re-emergence of Chikungunya virus infection in Eastern India. Brazilian Journal of Microbiology. 2020; 51(1): 177-182.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 
  29. Park SW, Ha NY, Ryu B, Bang JH, Song H, Kim Y, et al. Urbanization of scrub typhus disease in South Korea. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015; 9(5): e0003814.
    DOI
     Google Scholar 

How to Cite

Chatterjee, R. P., Chatterjee, S., Sikdar, S., Das, B. ., & Ray Ghosh, R. (2023). Prevalence of Chikungunya and Scrub Typhus Coinfection among Dengue Negative Patients in Kolkata, India-A Newly Emerging Public Health Hazard. European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 5(2), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejmed.2023.5.2.1598

Search Panel

Rajendra Prasad Chatterjee
Google Scholar
Pubmed
Ejmed Journal

Shilpa Chatterjee
Google Scholar
Pubmed
Ejmed Journal

Subhendu Sikdar
Google Scholar
Pubmed
Ejmed Journal

Biswajit Das
Google Scholar
Pubmed
Ejmed Journal

Reena Ray Ghosh
Google Scholar
Pubmed
Ejmed Journal