VIASURE Chikungunya Virus Real Time PCR Detection Kit is designed for specific identification of Chikungunya virus in clinical samples from patients with signs and symptoms of Chikungunya virus infection.

This test is intended for use as an aid in the diagnosis of the Chikungunya virus in combination with clinical and epidemiological risk factors.

RNA is extracted from specimens, amplified using RT-PCR and detected using fluorescent reporter dye probes specific for Chikungunya virus.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) belongs to the family Togaviridae and genus Alphavirus. Since its first well-documented emergence in Asia in the 1950s, two major enzootic lineages have been reported: West African and East/Central/South African (ECSA). Subsequently, this mosquito-borne virus has been implicated in explosive epidemics involving millions of persons in Africa, Asia, Europe, the South Pacific, and most recently the Americas.

CHIKV is arthropod-borne virus (arboviruses) transmitted to humans mainly by infected mosquitos of the Aedes genus, specifically Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Although perinatal vertical transmission has also been reported.

Patients infected with this virus typically present acute onset of fever, myalgia, joint swelling and headache, and even sometimes conjunctivitis, maculopapular rash and/or gastrointestinal symptoms. Even though, the hallmark clinical symptom of CHIKV is a bilateral migratory arthralgia, often intense, affecting mainly the small joints of the extremities. Indeed, the persistence of joint pain and stiffness is the major long-term complication, which may last years after resolution of the initial infection.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) cannot be distinguishing from other human infections as Dengue fever and Zika virus infection, other tropical and acute febrile diseases. Therefore, differential diagnosis for a patient with suspicious clinical symptoms who is living in or returning from travel to an endemic area should be performed. There are available different tests based on the detection of the virus and viral components (antigens or nucleic acid) during the acute-phase, or the host immunologic response to the virus later on.

In particular, Real Time RT-PCR is a common detection method due to cross-reactivity of Chikungunya antibodies with other arbovirus limits the use of serology. In order to perform the real time RT-PCR assay, the specimen types that can be tested includes blood, serum, plasma, urine and fresh or formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.