publication

Mayaro virus infection in French Guiana, a cross sectional study 2003-2019

Affiliations

1Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France.

2National Reference Center for arboviruses (NRCA), Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France; Environment and Infectious Risks Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

3Infectious and Tropical diseases Department, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France; Equipe EA 3593, Ecosystèmes amazoniens et pathologie tropicale, Université de la Guyane, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France.

4French Military Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health, Marseille, France.

5Equipe EA 3593, Ecosystèmes amazoniens et pathologie tropicale, Université de la Guyane, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France; French Military Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health, Marseille, France; Centre Médical Interarmées (CMIA), Cayenne, French Guiana, France.

6Equipe EA 3593, Ecosystèmes amazoniens et pathologie tropicale, Université de la Guyane, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France; Centre d’Investigation Clinique, INSERM 1424, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France.

7Pôle des Centres Délocalisés de Prévention et de Soins, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, Cayenne, France.

8Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department, Centre Hospitalier de l’Ouest Guyanais, France.

9National Reference Center for arboviruses (NRCA), Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France.

10Infectious and Tropical diseases Department, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France; Equipe EA 3593, Ecosystèmes amazoniens et pathologie tropicale, Université de la Guyane, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana, France. Electronic address: epelboincrh@hotmail.fr.

Abstract

Mayaro Virus is an emerging arbovirus which can be responsible of important outbreaks in tropical regions. A retrospective study was performed in French Guiana, an ultraperipheral region of Europe in Amazonia. We identified 17 human cases between 2003 and 2019. The clinical and biological picture was close to Chikungunya with fever and arthralgia. One patient had acute meningo-encephalitis, and 4 had persistent arthralgia. Physicians should be aware of this virus, as imported cases in Europe have already occurred. AUTHOR SUMMARY: Latin America has experienced several epidemics of arboviruses in recent years, some known for a long time, such as the dengue virus, and others of more recent introduction such as the chikungunya or Zika viruses. There are other arboviruses for the moment more discreet which are rife with low noise in several countries of the continent, such as the Mayaro virus. This alphavirus, with a presentation similar to that of the chikungunya virus, is currently confined to transmission by forest mosquitoes, but its potential to be transmitted by coastal mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti, make it a potential candidate for a continent-wide epidemic. It therefore seems necessary to know this virus as well as possible in order to anticipate the occurrence of a possible new epidemic. We present here a both demographic and clinical study of this endemic arbovirus disease in French Guiana.