Characterization of chronic clinical manifestations in patients with chikungunya fever

In Mexico there are no studies concerning the chronicity of clinical manifestations of chikungunya fever (CHIK).

To describe the characterization of chronic clinical manifestations in patients with chikungunya fever from the Unidad de Medicina Familiar No.9 (UMF No. 9).

A longitudinal, ambispective study was performed in a cohort of 116 patients with positive serology of CHIK, confirmed by RTPCR or IGM test performed at UMF No. 9 of Acapulco, Guerrero, from December 2014 to January 2017. The population was obtained from the epidemiological surveillance platform. The source of information was the epidemiological study of cases for vector-borne diseases. With measurements at 3, 4, 5, 6, 12 and 18 months of the onset of the acute phase, data were captured and analyzed in the statistical package SPSS, version 23.

62% of patients presented chronicity at 3 months; arthralgia was the most frequent chronic symptom with 88.8%; female gender and the age group of 20-59 years were the most affected.

Even though more than half of our population presented CHIK chronicity, this was lower than the reports from international literature; the main symptoms reported during the chronic phase were arthralgias and fatigue. The knowledge of CHIK symptoms behavior provides standards to generate integral management guides with a holistic and multidisciplinary approach.