Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(10): 1713-1717 1713 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.610.207 Seroprevalence of Chikungunya among Febrile Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital Mita D. Wadekar, J.V. Sathish * and Trupti B. Naik Department of Microbiology, Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, Chamarajanagar, Karnataka, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Chikungunya fever is a tropical arboviral disease caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV) that belongs to the family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus (Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek et al., 2015). The meaning of Chikungunya (CHIK) is “that which bends up” describing the stooped posture due to arthritic feature of the disease (Divya et al., 2016). It is transmitted to humans by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Alessandra Lo Presti et al., 2014). During epidemics, humans are the primary reservoirs. Monkeys, rodents, birds, and cattle have been identified as animal reservoirs (Norbert G. Schwarz et al., 2012). Vertical transmission of disease from mother to child has also been documented (Meghna R. Sebastian et al., 2009). Clinical manifestations are very variable, from asymptomatic illness to severe debilitating disease. Children are among the group at maximum risk for severe manifestations of the disease and some clinical features in this group are distinct from those seen in adults (Meghna R. Sebastian et al., 2009). Common signs and symptoms of an acute infection include polyarthralgia, high International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 10 (2017) pp. 1713-1717 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Chikungunya fever is a self-limiting viral fever caused by an arbovirus transmitted to human through mosquitoes. The sudden onset of very high fever along with rash and severe arthralgia are main symptoms. It still persists as major public health problem. Aim of the study is to know the seroprevalence of chikungunya infection in a tertiary-care hospital in Chamarajanagar, Karnataka, India. Data was collected from Microbiology Laboratory registers retrospectively for a period of one year from June 2016 to May 2017. Blood samples were collected from suspected cases of chikungunya fever and tested for IgM antibody using ELISA. Analysis was done using MS Excel. A total of 1432 chikungunya suspected serum samples were tested, of which 117 (8.17%) samples were positive for IgM antibody. Maximum number of positive cases was in age group of 18-45 years 71 (60.68%) with no significant difference between males 64 (54.70%) and females 53(45.30%). Seroprevalence of chikungunya in our study was 8.17% which suggests that it still exists in our setup and indicates the need of appropriate strategies to reduce the severity of disease. Keywords Chikungunya, Seroprevalence, ELISA. Accepted: 17 September 2017 Available Online: 10 October 2017 Article Info