Epidemiological and etiological characteristics of imported Chikungunya fever cases, Guangzhou

  Objective  To understand the epidemiological characteristics and genetic characteristics of imported Chikungunya fever cases in Guangzhou from 2017 to 2019 and provide scientific basis for the disease prevention and control.

  Methods  Descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the epidemiologic characteristics of imported Chikungunya cases in Guangzhou from 2017 to 2019 with software SPSS 19.0 software. The homology analysis and phylogenetic tree construction of E1 gene sequence of the isolated Chikungunya virus strains were carried out.

  Results  From 2017 to 2019, a total of 40 imported Chikungunya fever cases were reported in Guangzhou, in which 15 (37.50%) were transferred to other areas, and 25 (62.50%) were left for treatment in Guangzhou. The cases were mainly reported from May to October, accounting for 85.00% (34/40). Of all the cases, there were 34 males and 6 females, and the age ranged from 14 years to 68 years, the median of age was 33.5 years. The cases were mainly business related people, accounting for 52.50% (21/40). Most cases were from Asian countries (90.00%, 36/40), and the remaining were from Africa (10.00%, 4/40). From 2017 to 2019, the nucleotide and amino acid sequence homologies of E1 gene of the virus strains isolated from cases were 97.34%–100.00% and 93.82%–100.00%, respectively.

  Conclusion  The five imported Chikungunya virus strains isolated in Guangzhou belonged to Asian genotype. It is necessary to further strengthen the mechanism of joint prevention and control and pay attention to early diagnosis and take correct prevention and control measures.