Introduction

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the CHIKV, an RNA virus in the alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae. CHIKV was first identified in the United Republic of Tanzania in 1952 and subsequently  in other countries Africa and Asia. Urban outbreaks were first recorded in Thailand in 1967 and in India in the 1970s . Since 2004, outbreaks of CHIKV have become more frequent and widespread, caused partly due to viral adaptations allowing the virus to be spread more easily by Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. CHIKV has now been identified in over 110 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Transmission has been interrupted on islands where a high proportion of the population is infected and then immune; however, transmission often persists in countries where large parts of the population have not yet been infected.

Dengue and Zika have similar symptoms to chikungunya, making chikungunya easy to misdiagnose. Due to the challenges in reporting and diagnosis, the number of people affected by chikungunya is underestimated.

This kit is designed with specific primers and probes targeting the conserved region of CHIKV, generating fluorescence signals on a constant temperature nucleic acid amplification instrument. By employing POCT detection, it realizes qualitative and genotypic identification of CHIKV at the nucleic acid level.