Impaired Quality of Life One Year After Neuro-Chikungunya: A BrazilianExperience

Abstract

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a positive-strand RNA arthropod-borne virus that was first described in Africa about 65 years ago, and has now spread worldwide, mostly in underdeveloped countries. This study assessed 42 patients (34 women) with ages ranging from 30 to 78 years 12 months after the acute phase of CHIKV fever. A control group of 40 volunteers (27 women) with similar social and demographic features as the patients was used for comparison. Although the patients presented some neurologic symptoms during the acute phase of CHIKV infection, recovery was considered complete. They were evaluated using the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) in respect to their quality of life 12 months after the acute phase of the disease. In the comparison of the scores between groups, all domains were shown to be statistically significant showing a lower quality of life for the patients who had suffered neuro-chikungunya, although no patient had any apparent neurological sequela of CHIKV infection.