An Emerging Threat of Dengue and Chikungunya Co-infection: Need of Developing a Pre-diagnostic Screening Tool

Dengue and Chikungunya infections have caused large outbreaks globally and millions of people have been affected worldwide. They are transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus and can cause potentially severe acute illnesses and or debilitating chronic disease. Coinfection with both diseases is not new and has been reported on patients from Asian, African and Pacific countries. The need to differentiate between two infections is also very important because minute differences in treatment and, misdiagnosis can hamper epidemiological understanding of both diseases.

Use of symptoms differentiation, scoring systems and simple laboratory parameters is discussed in this article which can be used to accurately identify cases of mono and co-infections. The paper emphasizes on development of a pre-screening diagnostic criteria to differentiate between these two diseases which will not only reduce unnecessary testing but will also prevent misdiagnosis.