About a month ago I was infected and sick with chikungunya virus, a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It hits me by surprised because it wasn’t viral yet in our village and I didn’t hear any one had it, in neighboring village yes but to ours none.

I have visited a herb doctor thinking I was bewitched by unknown being, I felt better after doing so but the next day, upon waking up I can’t get up, my legs and my knees are very painful.  I was in severe pain and feverish as well, my family doesn’t believe me, I guess they are thinking I am making up things. It was a very hard for me to get up and dragged myself to the bathroom, I can’t get up without crawling and looking for something to hold on to.  I have told my family that I have chikungunya virus but they insisted I am only brewing a flu. My sister even get angry when I keep insisting that I have the mosquito virus, I think they can’t accept the truth that I am sick.  I have never been sick this grave so I guess they have the perception that I am made of steel so they are on denial that I am indeed sick because at first, they wanted me to get up and do things like I usually do.

They knew that I never failed to attend church during Sunday so things sink in to them that I am really sick especially when I show them the rash that are developing, my mother even says they looks like measles rash. Anyway, I have asked my sister to buy paracetamol tablet for me I took it after they force me to eat lunch.

Chikungunya Virus Infection Symptoms & Treatment

Symptoms of Chikungunya usually begin 3–7 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito and below are some of the symptoms when you have the virus –

• The most common symptoms are fever and joint pain.
• Other symptoms may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rash.
• Chikungunya disease does not often result in death, but the symptoms can be severe and disabling.

When I took paracetamol my fever subsided but the pain in my feet and wrist still there so I research more about the virus and I have found out that there is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat chikungunya virus. All you can do is rest well, drink plenty of fluid and take paracetamol to reduce fever and pain.

The pain is really disabling, it feels like you just had a stroke. I experienced a lot of pain on my right leg and knee, I read somewhere that when you are sick with chikungunya virus it will ache a lot in the part of your body you had an injury, my right leg was hit by a motorbike in Jeju while crossing the street so imagine my horror when I can’t walked and felt a severe pain on my right leg, I got so anxious and almost got panic thinking my feet will be cut.

On the second day of getting the mosquito virus my skin was quite dark, bit feverish and feet, legs, knees and wrist is still painful but I can move a bit.  I heard my younger aunt asked my mother if I am already well and what is my sickness because an older cousin has it too, he has red rashes all over his body but no fever.

On the next following days I was covered by red rashes that looks like minor burns and on the sixth day the rashes became worst  and when I was accidentally got wet by drizzling rain I felt itchy so I thought the rain drops were just so dirty so I took a bath and there I itched even more, I have thought again the water in our bathroom is dirty because it was so itchy that I don’t know which part of my body should I scratched first, and there I found I have rashes all over me.  I dry myself immediately and pour lotion into my body and uses the ointment I have bought online for treating allergies, the itchiness wasn’t that severe anymore.

My fever was gone after 2-3 days by taking paracetamol tablets, the pain didn’t disappear right away.  When I wake up in the morning my joints felt so painful, even until today.

You know what is ironic? My mother who keep insisting I only have flu also got the chikungunya virus the after two days I had it, it was terrible when she had it because she suffered stroke a year ago and she was disabled for a day that my father didn’t go to work so he can carry her.

Anyway, when I was a bit well and can go out I have found that an older cousin was sick too before us but they didn’t know it was chikungunya because they just said he has a high fever, and less than a week after, another older cousin had it, I thought he didn’t suffer a fever but he did actually before me.

Maybe if  we only knew that a cousin in the neighborhood had chikungunya infection we are able to do some prevention not to be infected as well.