Difference between Dengue and Chikungunya

Dengue and chikungunya are mosquito borne diseases that are caused by viral infection. The symptoms of both the diseases seem to be quite common but a little awareness can be helpful in knowing difference between dengue and chikungunya.

Cause of Disease

• Responsible vector
  Dengue is caused by Aedes Agypti mosquito where as the vector of chikungunya are Aedes Aegypti and Aedes Albopictus mosquitoes.
• Chikungunya is cause by infection of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) whereas dengue can be caused by any of four serotypes of dengue virus namely, DENV 1, DENV 2, DENV 3 and DENV 4.

Incubation period

When an infected mosquito bites a person the time taken for the onset of the dengue is three to four days whereas in case of chikungunya the symptoms appear in a week’s time.

Symptoms

Dengue is characterised with the abrupt onset of high fever, pain behind the eyes, severe headache, muscle, joint pains, vomiting, nausea and skin rashes. Bleeding is also common in the cases of dengue haemorrhagic fever. The symptoms of chikungunya include fever, chills, nausea, headaches and arthiritis (joint pain) in some of the cases. Unlike dengue there is no bleeding or shock reported in chikungunya.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of dengue is done by

• Primary infection is detected by testing antibodies of immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG).
• Testing for the platelets count.
• Checking the count of white blood cells.

Chikunguniya is diagnosed by virus isolation test, antibody testing of IgM as well as by genetic identification of virus gene structures. Detection of either C or E1 genome indicates positive result, similarly increased antibody also mark presence of chikungunya virus.

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