Chikungunya in West Bengal, India

Abstract

Fever of unknown origin broke out in several districts of West Bengal, from August 2007 to December 2007. The cases were suffering from high fever, severe joint pain lasting for several weeks after clinical cure and appearance of skin rashes. Patients' sera were collected at least five days after fever and were analyzed to detect specific IgM antibodies. A total of 800 patients were investigated and 321 (40.13%) were found to be reactive for Chikungunya antibodies. Of the patients, 66% were male. Predominant signs and symptoms observed in the sero-positive cases were fever (100%), arthralgia (96%) and diffuse erythematous skin rash (94%). Of the patients, 3% had haemorrhagic manifestations. Re-emerging Chikungunya virus spread in epidemic form in several districts of West Bengal after a gap of four decades.

Knowledge and Awareness Regarding Chikungunya among Urban Community People of Selected Area of Dhaka City Bangladesh

“…A large number of respondents considered that Chikungunya to be contagious and More than half of the respondents knew Chikungunya infection is not transmitted from person to person. The clinical profile of the Chikungunya observed in this study, high fever, head ache, vomiting, joint pain and Body rash, body ache, 5.7% myalgia sign and symptom of CHKV [25]. Most of the respondents were aware about treatment of Chikungunya infection that only paracetamol is required for treatment of CHKV, antibiotic not required for treatment of Chikungunya because Chikungunya is a self-limiting disease with morbidity rate is high, so only paracetamol, plenty of rest is enough for management of Chikungunya infected patient [26].…”

An Exploratory Study of Clinico-Epidemiological Features of Chikungunya Outbreak in a Rural Area of Andhra Pradesh, India

“…It was also observed that 66% were male patients and most common symptoms among cases were sudden onset of fever, joint pain and skin rashes. [12] Vijaykumar K P et al in their study in Kerala too observed a similar clinical pattern with fever and joint pain seen in all the patients included in the study. Swelling of joints was seen in 69.9% of the patients, being closely followed by head ache (64.1%) and itching (50.3%).…”

Death due to chikungunya

“…Mathur et al 4 published a case report with a similar association of AGN with HAV infection in a seven-year-old boy who had mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome and acute renal failure with HAV infection.…”