Chikungunya fever outbreak in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

• Published in: Indian journal of medical research (New Delhi, India : 1994) India : 1994), 2015-12, Vol.142 Suppl (7), p.S111-115
• Main Authors: Parashar, Deepti, Amdekar, Sarika, More, Ashwini, Patil, Poonam, More, Reva, Babu, V Ravindra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chikungunya fever; Chikungunya Fever - epidemiology; Chikungunya Fever - virology; Chikungunya virus; Chikungunya virus - pathogenicity; Correspondence; Disease Outbreaks; Distribution; Epidemics; Fever; Forecasts and trends; Genes; Genotype & phenotype; Humans; Immunoglobulins; India; India - epidemiology; Infections; Mosquitoes; Mutation; Real time; Surveillance; Wind
• ISSN: 0971-5916
• DOI: 10.4103/0971-5916.176639

A change in the CHIKV genotype, enhanced efficiency of mosquitoes to transmit the virus, an immunologically naive population, rapid means of trade and travel, global warming and lack of an efficient public health system are some of the important factors that influenced the explosive re-emergence of CHIKV [7] . To investigate the causative agent, 60 serum samples (2 ml each) were selected randomly to represent all the above villages, transported to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, on dry ice and screened for CHIKV using IgM enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (NIV kit), nested RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) and real time PCR. Nested RT-PCR targeting the E3 gene was also done by using in-house designed primers: (F1,5′- CAG ATA CCC GTG CAC ATG AAGT-3′ and R1, 5′- TGA GCT AAG TAT GGT CTT GT-3′) that produced a 534 base pairs (bp) fragment and (F 2, 5′-CAG ACC GAT CTT CGA CAA CA-3′ and R 2, 5′-TCA TGA CGT TGT CCT CAA GC-3′) that produced a 271-bp product. Standard CHIKV from NIV repository (African genotype, Strain No. 061573; Andhra Pradesh 2006; Accession Number EF027134) was used as positive control and phosphate buffer saline (PBS) as negative control to compare the results.