Relationship between chikungunya virus prevalence, rainfall and urbanization in the Philippines from January 2012-July 2013

• Main Author: Dela Cueva, Jaquelyn T.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Subjects: Immunology of Infectious Disease
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2764
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is regarded as a new virus even though it has infected people in the Philippines since the 1960’s and has been instigating sporadic outbreaks since. This virus is commonly mistaken for dengue due to similarities in symptoms since they do share similar vectors of transmission, the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. This study is done to determine the prevalence rates of CHIKV in each region of the Philippines and to determine if rainfall and urbanization plays a key role in prevalence, as some studies on dengue may suggest. CHIKV data were obtained from the National Epidemiological Center of the Department of Health, 2010 regional levels of urbanization from the National Statistics Office official website and rainfall data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). The collected data were analyzed using Regression Analysis in Microsoft Excel. Results show that nationwide prevalence of CHIKV from January-July of 2012 and 2013 increased by 38.62%. No linear relationship was established between prevalence rates and rainfall per region as well as level of urbanization. The highest prevalence rates were obtained from regions V, X and XI for 2012 while regions IV-B, VI and CARAGA had the highest prevalence for 2013. ARMM had no confirmed cases reported for both years.