Chikungunya outbreak in Bangladesh (2017): sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients from three hotspots

Abstract

Background Chikungunya is a severely debilitating disease. Bangladesh witnessed one of the largest outbreaks in 2017. Here, we described the clinical profile of the chikungunya outbreak in Bangladesh and its heterogeneity across three hotspots. Methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 432 individuals interviewed from the outpatient department of three study sites (Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sitakundu Upazilla of Bangladesh) after confirmation by the study physicians. Both laboratory-confirmed cases and probable cases were recruited between July and October 2017. Results Of all, 18% (79) were laboratory confirmed, and 353 82% (335) were probable cases. The male:female ratio was almost equal (1.09:1), and the predominant age group was 18–59 years. The mean age of the presentation was 36.07 ± 13.62 (SD) years. Fever and arthralgia were the most common presentations and were present in > 95% of cases. Other frequent symptoms were fatigue, myalgia, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Approximately half of the patients had arthritis and erythematous rash. Arthritis was predominant in Chittagong city, while maculopapular rash was not observed in Sitakunda city. However, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting are more common among patients in Dhaka city. Significant heterogeneity of clinical manifestations was present across the three hotspots (p < 0.05 for all). Both confirmed and probable cases shared similar characteristics except muscle ache (p = 0.22) and rash (p = 0.37). Conclusion The clinical profile of chikungunya virus-induced disease displays significant location-related heterogeneity in Bangladesh during a large outbreak. Although the causes of such differences are unclear, improved public and medical personnel education on this condition may lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Growth in chikungunya virus-related research in ASEAN and South Asian countries from 1967 to 2022 following disease emergence: a bibliometric and graphical analysis

“…[113][114][115][116], the current study also highlighted the prominent contributions of India, Thailand, and Singapore in scientific research. Recently, consecutive chikungunya epidemics have occurred in developing countries [60,63,86,87,89,111,112,[117][118][119][120], which may also explain the increasing number of ASEAN and South Asian countries participating in chikungunya-related studies.…”

“…Nonetheless, bibliometric studies on chikungunya are limited [84,85]. At present, chikungunya-related studies are receiving considerable attention from international scientific communities because of several outbreaks that have happened in recent years [63,[86][87][88][89][90][91][92]. Thus, the prevailing chikungunya-related literature from various perspectives must be evaluated and categorized thoroughly.…”

Correction to: Chikungunya outbreak in Bangladesh (2017): sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients from three hotspots

“…Following publication of the original article [ 1 ], the authors identified an error in the author name of Mohammad Rafiqul Islam.…”

Determinants of Chikungunya and O’nyong-Nyong Virus Specificity for Infection of Aedes and Anopheles Mosquito Vectors

“…Both mosquito genera are distributed worldwide. Both arboviruses are thought to have originated in Africa, but CHIKV has emerged globally, and caused recent epidemics in the Americas [ 5 ], Asia [ 6 ], and in Africa [ 7 ], while there is no evidence of ONNV transmission outside of Africa [ 8 ]. However, there could be biases due to the small number of studies, and the number of ONNV cases in Africa is underestimated due to common symptomatology with CHIKV and the cross-reactivity of diagnostic antibodies [ 4 ].…”