Post-chikungunya chronic arthralgia in Burkina Faso: Frequency and associated factors

Chikungunya is an arboviral disease characterized by acute osteoarticular manifestations with a risk of progression to chronicity. African data on post-chikungunya chronic arthralgia are scarce. This study aimed to identify factors associated with post-chikungunya chronic arthralgia in Burkina Faso.

This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study with ambispective data collection, conducted from April 22 to December 28, 2024, at the Medical Center of Pouytenga. All patients aged 16 years and older with RT-PCR- confirmed chikungunya virus infection were included. The evaluation comprised an initial clinical phase and telephone follow-up at 6 months of evolution.

We enrolled 174 patients, of whom 111 met the inclusion criteria. The mean age was 31.18 years ± 11.27 years with a female predominance of 66.67% (n = 74). Initial osteoarticular manifestations affected 92.79% of patients (n = 103), predominantly inflammatory arthralgia in 92.23% (n = 95) and symmetric polyarticular involvement in 73.79% (n = 76). At 6 months of evolution, 28.16% (n = 29) of patients had post-chikungunya chronic arthralgia, with persistence in the ankles in 65.52% of cases (n = 19). Multivariate analysis identified two significantly associated risk factors for chronic arthralgia were age greater than 31 years (OR = 6.22; 95% CI [2.35-16.47]; p < 0.001) and dengue coinfection (OR = 18.67; 95% CI [1.74-199.70]; p = 0.016]; p = 0.024).

Our study found that 28.16% of patients develop post-chikungunya chronic arthralgia at 6 months post infection. Age above 31 years was demonstrated to be a significant predictor of disease chronicity, while the potential role of dengue co-infection, observed in only 4 patients with wide confidence intervals, requires further investigation.