Blood viral density dynamics in acute Chikungunya virus infection

Chikungunya infection is caused by the Chikungunya alpha virus. The disease is characterized by an acute febrile illness that evolves to chronic, often severe, polyarticular limb arthralgia in approximately 30% of patients. There are no specific treatments for Chikungunya. To characterize the dynamics of viraemia in order to plan future antiviral studies, we took daily blood samples and evaluated serial viral densities measured by RT-PCR in a cohort of 19 adult Brazilian patients with acute Chikungunya infection. Viraemia exhibited a rapid decline, and most individuals were RT-PCR negative by day 4 after study entry. Higher viral loads were associated with earlier clinical presentations. Concentrations of sTNFR1 closely followed the decline in Chikungunya viral loads. Viral clearance measurements may be useful for the development and evaluation of novel treatments for Chikungunya infection. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evaluating anti-infective drugs'.