`Chikungunya' disease leaves painful effects

`Chikungunya' disease leaves painful effects

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Since she was infected with the chikungunya disease two weeks
ago, Kasminten still cannot walk as she used to, with her torso
and knees swelled as well as wrists and elbows.

"I still feel pain in my joints, especially in the groin, but
I force myself to work or I'll run out of money," the 57-year-old
resident of Kuncen hamlet in Wirobrajan, Yogyakarta said while
preparing food at her stall.

Her husband, Sarjo, 60, had the same condition. Although he
was hit by the disease a month ago, he still has difficulty
moving his arms and legs, and is essentially bed-ridden.

"In the first few days, I was unable to move at all... I was
so afraid at the thought that I would be paralyzed for good,"
Kasminten said.

Another resident, Surip, 65, was so weak she fell and injured
herself and was unable to walk to a doctor's office. "I had to
crawl from my bathroom and forced myself to reach the bedroom
because no one was at home when I fell," Surip recalled.

The so called "mysterious" disease was first recognized as an
epidemic in Tanzania in 1952, it has continued to cause major
epidemics in Africa, India and Southeast Asia.

In Indonesia, the mosquito-borne disease was first reported in
1973 in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, then in 1980 in Kuala
Tungkal, Jambi, 1983 in Martapura, Ternate and later in
Yogyakarta.

After a nearly 20-year hiatus, it broke out again in early
2001 in Muara Enim, South Sulawesi and recently in several cities
including Yogyakarta.

According to head of Yogyakarta mayoralty's health office,
Choirul Anwar, Wirobrajan was one of two villages considered most
prone to the disease. The other village was Tegalgendu in
Kotagede subdistrict.

He said that so far, some 400 people in the municipality were
hit by the disease, saying that the only thing his office could
do was cut down the life cycle of the disease's main carriers,
the Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, since the
disease had no specific medicinal cure.

"Chikungunya is not a lethal disease. So don't panic if you
experience the symptoms," Choirul said.

He advised people with the symptoms to take over-the-counter
pain relief medicine to deal with the fever and eat healthy food
and drink plenty of water and fruit juice or fresh fruit to
improve stamina.

A healthy environment, he said, was also a crucial factor to
prevent infection. For instance, houses should be thoroughly
cleaned of any possible places where the mosquitoes can breed.
Doors and windows should also be open as much as possible let
fresh air and sunshine in.

Once the virus infects a human, it will grow, causing fever to
the infected people for about five straight days. The virus
usually has an incubation period of some three to 12 days before
it shows its symptoms.

In many cases, according to Choirul, the sufferers would also
feel pain in their joints and muscles. At times, the pain can
cause temporary paralysis.

He explained that the acute symptoms, including paralysis,
will last for some six to 10 days. But the pain in the joints
might come and go for some two to four months without the fever.

"The time required to recover completely from chikungunya
depends very much on the infected persons' health. The healthier
they are, the shorter time they need to recover," Choirul said.
He added that chikungunya was a self-limiting disease, meaning
people would recover as time went by.

In some cases, sufferers also vomit like those with an
ordinary flu and get a rash on their skin. Bleeding sometimes
also follows the symptoms, just like in the case of dengue fever
but the case, known as CHF or chikungunya hemorrhagic fever,
rarely occurs.

Clinical symptoms of the disease, which is also called bone
fever or bone flu, are actually similar to other Arbovirosis-
related diseases like dengue fever, O' Nyong Nyong, West Nile
fever, Mayaro, group C viral fever and Rift Valley fever.

"But the most important comparative diagnosis needed here in
Indonesia is between chikungunya, dengue fever and dengue
hemorrhagic fever (DHF)," Choirul said.