Department of Virology, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XVIII National Conference of Indian Virological Society at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, December 11–13, 2008.
A widespread unknown fever broke out in nine districts of West Bengal, from August 2007, that continued up to December 2007. A total of 800 patients were investigated and 321 (40.13%) were found to be reactive for Chikungunya antibodies by IgM capture ELISA and HI test. 66% of the patients were male. Predominant signs & symptoms observed in the sero-positive cases were fever (100%), arthralgia (96%) and diffuse erythematous rash(94%). 3% of the patients had hemorrhagic manifestations. Four suspected deaths occurred.
