Fever and chikungunya in pediatric age: considerations of rigor

Authors

Keywords:

fever; pediatrics; chikungunya; arboviruses

Abstract

Chikungunya has been reported as a cause of febrile illness in children and neonates since the 1960s. Following the initial report of cases in Asia and its spread to the Western Hemisphere, infections in this group increased as did the severity of the illness and the number of complications. This article aims to present important considerations regarding how to interpret fever in children infected with the chikungunya virus.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Amauri Lázaro Noda-Albelo, Servicio Médico Integral. Montevideo

Especialista de primer grado en Inmunología Clínica y de segundo grado en Pediatría. Máster en Infectología y Medicina Tropical. Profesor e investigador auxiliar. 

Roberto Cañete-Villafranca, Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Matanzas

Director del Consejo Provincial de Sociedades Cientificas de la Salud. Jefe del Departamento de Parasitología. Presidente del Comité de Ética de la Investigación y la Comisión de Ética Médica del Centro Provincial de Higiene, Epidmiología y Microbiología, de Matanzas.

References

1. Tavares WGS, Leite RD, Christofolini DM. Chikungunya fever in hospitalized children and adolescents: clinical and epidemiological aspects in a region of northeastern Brazil. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2025;101(3):466-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.jped.2025.01.010.

2. Freppel W, Silva LA, Stapleford KA, et al. Pathogenicity and virulence of chikungunya virus. Virulence. 2024;15(1):2396484. DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2024.2396484.

3. Sharma PK, Kumar M, Aggarwal GK, et al. Severe Manifestations of Chikungunya Fever in Children, India, 2016. Emerg Infect Dis. 2018;24(9):1737-9. DOI: 10.3201/eid2409.180330.

4. Rama K, de Roo AM, Louwsma T, et al. Clinical outcomes of chikungunya: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2024;18(6):e0012254. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012254.

5. Pedí VD, de França GVA, Rodrigues VB, et al. Burden of Chikungunya Fever and Its Economic and Social Impacts Worldwide: A Systematic Review. Trop Med Int Health. 2025;30(9):865-92. DOI: 10.1111/tmi.70012.

6. Burt FJ, Chen W, Miner JJ, et al. Chikungunya virus: an update on the biology and pathogenesis of this emerging pathogen. Lancet Infect Dis. 2017;17(4):e107-17. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(16)30385-1.

7. de Lima Cavalcanti TYV, Pereira MR, de Paula SO, et al. A Review on Chikungunya Virus Epidemiology, Pathogenesis and Current Vaccine Development. Viruses. 2022;14(5):969. DOI: 10.3390/v14050969.

8. Vairo F, Haider N, Kock R, et al. Chikungunya: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Clinical Features, Management, and Prevention. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2019;33(4):1003-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.idc.2019.08.006.

9. Naik KD, Delhi Kumar CG, Abimannane A, et al. Chikungunya infection in children: clinical profile and outcome. J Trop Pediatr. 2024;71(1):fmae057. DOI: 10.1093/tropej/fmae057.

10. Khongwichit S, Chansaenroj J, Chirathaworn C, et al. Chikungunya virus infection: molecular biology, clinical characteristics, and epidemiology in Asian countries. J Biomed Sci. 2021;28(1):84. DOI: 10.1186/s12929-021-00778-8.

Portada 2026

Downloads

Published

2026-04-22

How to Cite

1.
Noda-Albelo AL, Cañete-Villafranca R. Fever and chikungunya in pediatric age: considerations of rigor. Rev Méd Electrón [Internet]. 2026 Apr. 22 [cited 2026 Apr. 23];48:e7109. Available from: https://revmedicaelectronica.sld.cu/index.php/rme/article/view/7109

Issue

Vol. 48 (2026): Continuous publication

Section

Opinion article

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Amauri Lázaro Noda-Albelo, Roberto Cañete-Villafranca

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

All content published in this journal is Open Access, distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

It allows:

 - Copy and redistribute published material in any medium or format.

 - Adapt the content.

 This will be done under the following terms:

 - Attribute the authors' credits and indicate whether changes were made, in which case it must be in a reasonable way.

 - Non-commercial use.

 - Recognize the journal where it is published.

 The copyrights of each article are maintained, without restrictions.