Congenital chikungunya virus infection in Sincelejo, Colombia: A case series

Congenital chikungunya virus (CHIK) infection has been infrequently reported, even more so during the current 2013-15 outbreak in Latin America. In this study, the consequences of CHIK on pregnancy outcomes and particularly consequences in infants born to infected women were assessed in a case series from a single private institution in the north of Colombia. During September 2014 to February 2015, seven pregnant women with serological and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-positive test for CHIK delivered eight infants with CHIK. These newborns required admission to pediatric intensive care, and related support, owing to severe clinical manifestations, which included respiratory distress, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, meningoencephalitis, myocarditis, edema, bullous dermatitis and pericarditis. There were three deaths (case fatality rate of 37.5%). Pregnant women and newborns with CHIK long term should be followed up, given the implications of chronic sequelae (e.g. chronic inflammatory rheumatism in women) as well as recently described neurocognitive impairment in infants.