THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — A study on the socio-economic impact of last year’s chikungunya epidemic in Kerala has warned that one more outbreak would have devastating effect on the state’s low-income people.

Poor people have been the largest number of victims of the disease and the phenomenon is highly regressive on the well-being of the society at large and the low-income families in particular, it says.

The study conducted by the University of Kerala, Virology Institute, Pune, N.S. Memorial Hospital, Kollam, and the city-based Population Health and Research Institute and Knowledge Synergy Systems suggests immediate implementation of a social health insurance scheme to ensure that families affected by such maladies do not find themselves financially devastated.

“In more than half the chikungunya cases, the expenditure on treatment exceeded their meager monthly income. And around one-thirds of the infected-people’s work efficiency has been decreased and this has badly affected their capacity to earn a living as muscle/joint pains caused by the infection last for over a year,” it says. The study says the disease has had a negative effect on the life span of the affected person.

“It’s shameful that the state lacked a good center for virology tests. In most of the cases, the virus in the blood sample ceases to exist when it reaches Pune for test. Hence, the results sometimes rule out the disease being chikungunya. The only virology center in the country is in Pune.

Early diagnosis and immediate eradication of the virus is absolutely essential and this calls for the establishment of virology centers in different parts of the country, especially in a state like Kerala,” researchers K.T. Shenoy, V. Nandamohan and Leena K.V. said.

As the number of chikungunya cases was significantly high during monsoon, it can cause a chaotic situation if not handled on priority, they said.

Recently, researchers at Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology here have developed a new diagnostic test to distinguish chikungunya from dengue viruses. The test kit works as early as the second or third day of symptoms enabling early detection of the disease spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that have initial symptoms of fever and joint pains.

The test uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods that rapidly produce thousands of copies of a gene. It contains two sets of gene probes - one common to all four types of dengue, and another specific to chikungunya.

Chikungunya virus reappeared in India in 2006 after a gap of 32 years, with the Health Ministry reporting 1.3 million cases from 13 states. Officials estimate this year’s outbreak in Kerala affected 7,000 people. This time, outbreaks were of a different strain from the one reported in the 1970s as it carried a genetic mutation that helps the virus adapt better to the host mosquitoes and multiply more efficiently, which could be a reason for the severe outbreak in Kerala.