The Chikungunya virus is on the rise in South America

Chikungunya, the Mexican Mosquito-Borne Virus, and its Impact on the Epidemics in South America

The mosquito-borne virus has made its way to several South American countries, most recently Argentina, where Dr. Susana Lloveras works at Hospital Muiz. The joints in their hands and feet commonly ache along with their knees. The pain can get so bad that some have difficulty walking or even holding a cup of coffee.

Lloveras says that it affects the quality of life. “You are well. And suddenly, you can’t move, you need another person help you to do the common task of every day.”

Although it’s usually not fatal, the most common symptom is long- lasting joint pain. But new advances, including a study just published this week, may soon help us outfox this virus — whose name is pronounced “chicken-GOON-ya” and according to the World Health Organization, comes from the Kimakonde language, spoken in parts of Tanzania and Mozambique, and means “to become contorted.”

The case count in South America this year is already up to a quarter of a million new cases. The outbreak has seen over 100,000 diagnoses and is at its most severe in Paraguay.

She says that earlier this year they received patients with no travel history with chikungunya. For the first time, mosquitoes in Buenos Aires were spreading the disease.

The disease’s footprint is growing. “Wherever the mosquitoes goes, we will have chikungunya — it’s a global concern,” says Nischay Mishra, a virologist at Columbia University. With the climate changing and temperatures getting warmer, “there are more chances mosquitoes can survive everywhere,” he says.

Chikungunya is a virus that can make us sick by turning our cells into virus machines: A solution to the inflammation-related symptoms of joint pain

Even though the immune systems of some people are able to clear the virus, they can still have joint pain for months or even years.

“We don’t really understand what causes that debilitating arthritis,” says Margaret Kielian, a virologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. There’s a question about a virus in the joints. Is it inflammation?

In a new study conducted in mice, the scientists found something that could help solve the mystery.

Most viruses make us sick by turning our cells into virus-making machines. They release new particles that can make their way to new cells. Chikungunya is able to do both, but it has another trick.

One or two tendrils, sometimes as long as the cell itself, snake outwards, at times toward uninfected cells. And these tendrils can escape attack by the immune system. “That contact between the infected cell and the uninfected cell shields the virus from the antibodies,” says Kielian. That’s how the cell gets caught up in something.

Vaccines for Chikungunya and Other Mosquito-Borne Viruses, including Malaria, are very important

“This information is very useful, especially as it relates to vaccine development”, says a person who wasn’t involved in the study It will be very important if the vaccine is able to deal with this alternative mechanism of infections.

Several vaccine efforts are underway and one may be approved by the end of the year. In a place like Hospital Muiz, it would be a good development.

Dr. Lloveras says the vaccine is necessary to treat this kind of disease. She adds that in the future, she and her team will need every tool they can get to fight all manner of mosquito-borne viruses, including chikungunya.