Upsurge of chikungunya cases in Uttar Pradesh, India

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Chikungunya (CHIK) re-emerged in India in 2006 after a gap of three decades. In Uttar Pradesh (UP), <100 confirmed cases per million were reported during this outbreak. Based on an upsurge of CHIK cases at UP, this retrospective study was conducted to investigate clinical and serological profile of CHIK cases in UP. METHODS: A retrospective study was done on all clinically suspected CHIK cases that had been tested by ELISA for anti-CHIK virus IgM antibodies from September 2012 to December 2017. Based on clinical features, a subset of patients had earlier been tested serologically for dengue and Japanese encephalitis (JE). RESULTS: Of the 3240 cases enrolled, 771 (23.8%) were seropositive. Patients had a range of clinical manifestations with seropositivity highest in those exhibiting arthralgia with fever (40%), followed by fever of unknown origin (FUO) (22%), encephalitis (13%) and fever with rash (12%). Cases (total, seropositive) increased over 20-fold in 2016 (1389, 412) and 2017 (1619, 341), compared to 2012-2015. Nearly a third of dengue serology-positive cases and a fifth of JE serology-positive cases were co-positive for CHIKV. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Archival data from 2006-2011 and data from this study (2012-2017) indicated that UP experienced first CHIK outbreak in the decade in 2016, as part of a large-scale upsurge across northern India. CHIK should be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients presenting with fever of unknown origin or fever with rash or acute encephalitis, in addition to classical arthralgia.