Co-Habitation and Concurrent Infection of Dengue and Chikungunya Viruses in Aedes Aegypti Field Populations from India

Dengue and chikungunya have been identified as important re-emerging diseases in India. It has recently become a major health problem around the world, particularly in tropical and subtropical countries including India. Chikungunya fever is another re-emerging vector borne disease which is now being reported from areas previously unaffected with possibly changing epidemiology and severity of the disease. Aedes aegypti is the principal vector for the transmission of both of these arboviral infections. Information on vector population in the field vis-a-vis co-habitation of dengue and chikungunya viruses is of great importance in order to understand the role of vectors in the transmission of co-infections, but such information is presently lacking in India. We carried out a pilot survey in the states of Delhi and Haryana to estimate the presence of co-infections in Ae. aegypti during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. This study is the first to report co-habitation of DENV and CHIKV in Ae.aegypti field population