Retrospective survey of Chikungunya disease in Réunion Island hospital staff

Abstract

Réunion Island (Indian Ocean) has been suffering from its first known Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) epidemic since February 2005. To achieve a better understanding of the disease, a questionnaire was drawn up for hospital staff members and their household. CHIKV infected about one-third of the studied population, the proportion increasing with age and being higher in women. Presence of a garden was associated with CHIKV infection. The geographical distribution of cases was concordant with insect vector Aedes albopictus distribution. The main clinical signs were arthralgia and fever. The disease evolved towards full recovery in 34.4% of cases, a relapse in 55.6%, or a chronic form in 10%. Paracetamol was used as a painkiller in 95% of cases, sometimes associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticoids, or traditional herbal medicine. The survey provided valuable information on the factors that favour transmission, the clinical signs, the importance of relapses and the therapies used.

A Model for a Chikungunya Outbreak in a Rural Cambodian Setting: Implications for Disease Control in Uninfected Areas

“…It has been documented previously that chikungunya outbreaks often follow large rainfall episodes [38]–[40], which result in a surge in the local mosquito population [41]–[44]. The dominant mosquito population identified in the region during an entomologic assessment performed on March 29-30 was Ae.…”

Prevalence of and risk factors for chronic arthralgia and rheumatoid-like polyarthritis more than 2 years after infection with chikungunya virus

“…It has been shown that most infected individuals show symptoms, with only ∼5% of cases being asymptomatic 18. Therefore, during an outbreak, presentation with the classical CHIKV disease triad of fever, arthralgia and rash is sufficient to diagnose the condition clinically,19 and, furthermore, there are data to suggest that abrupt presentation with any two of these is sufficient 20. Hence for the purposes of this study, participants were eligible for inclusion if they described an acute illness associated with at least two of these three symptoms.…”

Development of novel antibodies against non-structural proteins nsP1, nsP3 and nsP4 of chikungunya virus: potential use in basic research

“…During the CHIKV outbreak in 2005-07, almost 1.3 million people were affected in 13 states in India [8]. Since 2005, several periodic CHIKV outbreaks were reported in various parts of the world such as in La Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, Italy, Thailand, China, Congo, Gabon, the Caribbean and the United States (http:// www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/geo/united-states.html) [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”