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Arriving in India, my senses are reawakened - from the slumber of a long flight - with the sights, sounds and scents of this incredible destination. My first priority, after a brief rest, was to meet with EcoHealth Alliance Alliance member, Dr. Raman Sukumar at the Indian Institute of Science. Dr. Sukumar is a well-respected ecologist who has made significant contributions towards Asian elephant conservation, climate change research and tropical forest ecology. I was also introduced to Dr. Kartik Shanker, and Dr. Kavita Isvaran of the Centre for Ecological Studies as well as Thomas Matthews, Director of the Asian Nature Conservation Foundation and EcoHealth Alliance partner. It was wonderful to put names to faces and have the opportunity to discuss our projects in detail.

After my meetings, I set out to begin my research by placing mosquito egg sampling traps around the grounds of the Indian Institute of Science and at a local nursery. I am hoping to collect a vast amount of mosquito eggs so I can test for Chikungunya – an insect-borne virus that is transmitted to humans by virus-carrying mosquitoes.

The word "chikungunya" is thought to derive from an African language describing the contorted posture of patients afflicted with the severe joint pain associated with this disease. Outbreaks have occurred in Mauritius, Réunion, India and most recently Thailand. Currently, there are no specific treatments or a vaccine for Chikungunya, and outbreaks have caused high morbidity rates. The disease has symptoms similar to dengue fever.

Tomorrow, will be an early day, Sukumar and I head out for Mudumalai at 6:00 am to visit his field site there and then on to Udhagamandalam, the district capital of the Nilgiri Hills, to collect more mosquito eggs. We choose to visit Udhagamandalam, or "Ooty" as it is often called, because the city sits at a high elevation and will give me the opportunity to test mosquitoes in a more temperate climate. Ooty is also easily accessible from Bangaluru (the new official name of Bangalore as of 2006).

When I left New York, I was mentally prepared for the torrential rains that come with monsoon season; I was already used to the continuous rain New Yorkers have experienced for the past three weeks. Surprisingly, when we arrived in Bangaluru it was sunny, warm and dry – a welcome change from the persistent rain I’ve been accustomed to back in NYC. With the news of an approaching storm in the Bay of Bengal, I knew my day in the sun would be short-lived.

Reporting from the field, EcoHealth Alliance Senior Research Fellow, Parviez Hosseini, is studying the dynamics of Chikungunya and other vector-borne diseases.