Guillain-Barré Syndrome after Chikungunya Infection

摘要

To the Editor: Chikungunya vi-rus is an RNA alphavirus (group A arbovirus) in the family Togaviridae. The known vectors are Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosqitoes. Chikun-gunya infection, after an incubation period of 2–10 days, has the main clin-ical manifestations of fever, polyarth-ralgia, and rash. Treatment consists of rest and medication for pain. Outcome is marked by incapacitating arthralgia, which can persist for several weeks or months (1). Complications are rare and consist of mild hemorrhage, myocarditis, and hepatitis (2). Neu-rologic manifestations are less well known (3). Infection is confi rmed by the identifi cation of genomic products in acute-phase blood specimens, (re-verse transcription–PCR [RT-PCR]) or, more recently, by serum immuno-globulin (Ig) M or a 4-fold increase in other antibodies. In 2006, chikun-gunya virus was found on Réunion Is-land; seroprevalence on the island was estimated to be 38.2% among 785,000 inhabitants (95% confi dence interval 35.9%–40.6%) (4).