Srilanka, May 26 -- Sri Laka is currently experiencing a large Chikungunya outbreak after 16 years and the current virus was of the Indian Ocean Lineage (IOL) with several unique mutations, Sri Jayewardenepura University's Immunology and Molecular Medicine Department Head Prof. Neelika Malavige said in a post on X.

She said a team of researchers carried out whole genomic sequencing of the currently circulating Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) strain and found that it was of the Indian ocean lineage (IOL), similar to the currently circulating CHIKV strains in South Asia. The findings of this research can be found in a paper titled "The re-emergence of Chikungunya in Sri Lanka: A genomic investigation," published on medRxiv.While the E:226V muta...