Differences between Dengue and Chikungunya

Differences between Dengue and Chikungunya

Dengue and chikungunya are transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, a species that bites during daytime.
Dengue is the fever caused by the bite of Aedes aegypti whereas Chikungunya is caused by the bite of both Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti.

Differences between Dengue and Chikungunya are as follows

Character	Dengue	Chikungunya
Causative agent	Dengue virus, belongs to Flaviviridea family and Flavivirus genus.	Chikungunya virus, belongs to Togaviridea family and alphvirus genus.
Primary vector	Aedes aegypti	Aedes albopictus
Incubation period	4-7 days	3-7days (range 1-12 days)
Disease duration	4-7 weeks	1-2 weeks
Symptoms	Fever, Joint pain, Headache, Rashes, Pain behind the eye	Fever, Joint pain, Headache, eye pain, Rashes
Joint pain and muscle pain	Muscle pain on the back, arms and legs. Joint pain on knees and shoulders.	Joint pains on hands and feet. Swelling is present and the pain is high in the morning.
Rashes	Rashes usually on face and limbs.	Rashes on trunk, limbs, face, palms and feet.
Arthritis	Absent	present
Hemorrhage	Yes	May be present or absent.
Shock	Yes	No
Clinical lab findings	Thrombocytopenia (<100 and="" ast="" dengue="" elevated="" enzymes="" fever="" hemorrhagic="" liver="" lymphopenia="" mm3="" more="" neutropenia="" severe="" signs="" span="" with="">	Mild thrombocytopenia (>100,000 /mm3), lymphopenia, elevated liver enzymes (ALT, AST)
Complications	Life threatening complications such as shock, breathing difficulty and heavy bleeding can occur.	Upto 10% of patients develop chronic joint pain. Neurological damage is possible, but rare.