Kyasanur Forest Disease Case Study

1. The key features of the disease in the scenario are as follows. The symptoms have been noted to consist of chills, fever, headaches, myalgia or muscle aches and stiffness (Khayznikov et al., 2015), vomiting, bleeding from the nose, mouth and gastrointestinal tract, disorientation, and photophobia or sensitivity to light (Digre and Brennan, 2013). The incubation period was most likely a few days to a week, as individuals developed symptoms after returning from the forest. This disease occurred in South Asia, and had a seasonal pattern to outbreaks. As seen in Figure 1, the highest number of cases was in February and decreased as the months went on. The number of cases was the lowest in January, with June also being low for the amount of cases
Based on these features, the disease most likely is Kyasanur Forest Disease. The Kyasanur forest disease has a reservoir of ticks, that can transmit the disease to rodents, shrews, and monkeys (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The Kyasanur forest disease can cause high fatalities with primates, which is similar to the disease in question (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Kyasanur Forest Disease resembles the disease in question in the fact that they both cause hemorrhaging of the gastrointestinal tract (Holbrook, 2012). Since the Kyasanur Forest Disease is transmitted by ticks, it makes sense as to how the epidemic occurred in the case study, as the villages relied on the forests, thus being at a greater risk for tick bites (Mourya, Yadav, Patil, 2014). Kyasanur Forest Disease has symptoms of fever, myalgia, diarrhea, oral and intestinal hemorrhaging, and other symptoms (Mourya, Yadav, Patil, 2014) which is similar to the disease in the case study. Some complications of Kyasanur forest disease include fevers, tremors, and vision impairments (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The Kyasanur forest disease occurs mainly in India (Mourya, Yadav, Patil, 2014), which is similar to the disease in the case study as that disease occurs in South Asia. As mentioned by the CDC in 2013, people with a lot of exposure to rural and outdoor areas in certain areas, like hunters and farmers, may be more at risk than others. As mentioned in the case study, most people showed signs of illness a few days after being in the forest. Kyasanur forest disease tends to become more frequent from June to November, as it is the dry season (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). In the case study, Figure 1 shows that the disease in question also has a seasonal pattern, which strengthens the claim that the unknown disease is Kyasanur forest disease. Those who contracted Kyasanur forest disease mostly recovered without