Dermatological Atypical Manifestations of Chikungunya

Chikungunya fever is an important arthropod-borne viral disease. The re-emergence of Chikungunya fever in 2006 has drawn global attention due to its explosive onset, rapid spread, high morbidity and myriad clinical atypical manifestations. The aim of the present work was to look for atypical manifestations following CHIKV infection in southern districts of Tamilnadu during 2010 outbreak. In this study we have isolated CHIKV from 2010 outbreak cases IgM Elisa performed and analyzed statistically for atypical manifestation. A total of 90 suspected cases were screened for Chikungunya by IgM capture ELISA, and Chi-square test was used for comparing categorical data, using Graph Pad Prism 5.0 analysis. Hyper pigmentation and thickening of nasolabial region and spreading to maxillary region, ear lobes were observed in ten of the IgM CHIKV positive cases. They also had hyper pigmentation in the arms, legs and in palms and soles. Whether these dermatological atypical manifestations are due to an unusual host response to the virus or due to mutant variants of CHIKV is unknown.