Chikungunya virus and maternal infection

Chikungunya virus, an infectious agent transmitted by mosquitoes, appears seldom to harm infants of mothers infected early in pregnancy, but can frequently cause serious problems, including lasting brain injury, in babies born to mothers who acquire the virus near the time of delivery, according to a study in PLoS Medicine.

During a 2005-2006 chikungunya outbreak in the Indian Ocean, physicians from the Island of La Réunion and Marc Lecuit of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, gathered information on more than 7,000 women delivering babies at a hospital in the southern part of this island. They also studied the health of babies born to these women.

The researchers determined that 700 of the new mothers had been infected with chikungunya virus at some point between conception and 3 days before delivery. Among these women 3 early fetal deaths were associated with infection, but otherwise none were found to have transmitted chikungunya to their infants. In contrast, among 39 mothers who became infected within 2 days before or after delivery, 19 babies became infected. All of the infected babies were born healthy but developed fever, weakness, and pain within 3–7 days. Ten of these babies became seriously ill—nine developed brain swelling, and two had bleeding into the brain. Disabilities persisted in four children at the end of the study several months later.

The researchers conclude that clinicians and public health officers must remain alert to the threat that chikungunya virus poses to newborn children whenever outbreaks occur, and that clinicians should monitor babies exposed to chikungunya virus around delivery for a week after their birth, and be prepared to provide them with supportive treatment in the hospital.

Chikungunya virus was first isolated from a patient in Tanzania in the early 1950s. Since then, major outbreaks of chikungunya fever have occurred throughout sub-Saharan Africa and in Southeast Asia, India, and the Western Pacific, usually at intervals of about 7–8 years. The virus causes fever, rash, and severe joint and muscle pains, usually within 3–7 days of being bitten by an infected mosquito.

In a related Policy Forum, Thomas Scott of the University of California, Davis and colleagues, who were not involved in the study, discuss how suppression of carrying mosquitoes is a practical method to control urban dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya viruses.

Citation: Gerardin P, Barau G, Michault A, Bintner M, Randrianaivo H, et al. (2008) Multidisciplinary prospective study of mother-to-child chikungunya virus infections on the Island of La Reunion. PLoS Med 5(3): e60.

Source: Public Library of Science

Related stories:

New agent strikes at respiratory syncytial virus replication
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have achieved promising results with a potential new weapon against respiratory syncytial virus, the most common cause of infant hospitalization in the United States.
Chinese officials accused of covering up killer virus
Local authorities in eastern China tried to cover up an outbreak of a highly contagious virus that has killed 20 children and left more than 1,500 others ill, Chinese press reports said Tuesday.
About one-quarter of women with HIV want to become pregnant
About one in four women who have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) expect pregnancy and motherhood to be a part of their future, recent research suggests.
Researchers create first chikungunya animal model
Researchers have developed the first animal model of the infection caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an emerging arbovirus associated with large-scale epidemics that hit the Indian Ocean (especially the French Island of La Réunion) in 2005, later spreading to India, and Italy in 2007. Using this mouse model, scientists of the Institut Pasteur and INSERM determined which tissues and cells are infected by the virus in both the mild and severe forms of the disease it causes. They detail their findings in an article published February 15 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.
Herpes virus link to complications in pregnancy
Researchers at Adelaide's Women's & Children's Hospital and the University of Adelaide, Australia, have made a world-first discovery that links viral infection with high blood pressure during pregnancy and pre-term birth.
Evolutionary battle scars' identify enhanced antiviral activity
Rapid evolution of a protein produced by an immunity gene is associated with increased antiviral activity in humans, a finding that suggests evolutionary biology and virology together can accelerate the discovery of viral-defense mechanisms, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.
A novel finding in how chikungunya virus has spread to new vectors and locations
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have discovered how a key protein switch allows Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) to spread to new vectors. The study, published December 7 in PLoS Pathogens, explains how the virus has increased its ability to infect and be transmitted by the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus.
Scientists find predisposition to bronchiolitis in some babies
Scientists have found that a large proportion of infants who suffer from bronchiolitis have an inherent pre-disposition to the disease.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news