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Current Rheumatology Research

ISSN: 2693-7204

Review Article Open Access
Volume 2 | Issue 1 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.46439/rheumatology.2.012

Chikungunya: an emerging rheumatological pandemic?

Joshua B. Bilsborrow1,*, J. Kennedy Amaral2, Robert T. Schoen1
  • 1Section of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 2Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
+ Affiliations - Affiliations

Corresponding Author

Joshua B. Bilsborrow, joshua.bilsborrow@yale.edu

Received Date: September 11, 2020

Accepted Date: December 11, 2020

Citation:

Bilsborrow JB, Amaral JK, Schoen R. Chikungunya: an emerging rheumatological pandemic?. Curr Rheumatol Res 2021. 2(1):12-17.


Copyright: © 2021 Bilsborrow JB, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) has recently emerged alongside Ebolavirus, Zika virus, and SARS-CoV-2 as the causative pathogen for a global pandemic. CHIKV is a single-stranded RNA alphavirus that is transmitted by Aedes species mosquitos and has spread beyond its endemic regions in East Africa and South Asia through the Indian Ocean islands, into Southern Europe, and through the Caribbean and the wider Americas. Acute chikungunya fever (CHIKF) is characterized by high fevers, arthralgias, myalgias, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances, and maculopapular rash. Almost all patients recover from the acute illness, but up to fifty percent develop a chronic rheumatic syndrome with disabling arthritis that can last for months to years. Treatment of acute CHIKF is mainly supportive, while immunomodulation of chronic rheumatic disease with disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) such as methotrexate appears to be beneficial. Preventive measures such as mosquito vector control and vaccination could decrease transmission and reduce the burden of chronic disabling post-viral arthritis.

Keywords

Chikungunya, Alphavirus, Epidemic, Pandemic, Arthritis, Vaccination, COVID-19

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