Cases of chikungunya virus infection in travellers returning to Spain from Haiti or Dominican Republic, April-June 2014

A Requena-Méndez; C García; E Aldasoro; J A Vicente; M J Martínez; J A Pérez-Molina; A Calvo-Cano; L Franco; I Parrón; A Molina; M Ruiz; J Álvarez; M P Sánchez-Seco; J Gascón

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.28.20853

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Cases of chikungunya virus infection in travellers returning to Spain from Haiti or Dominican Republic, April-June 2014
A Requena-Méndez^1,2 , C García^2,3 , E Aldasoro¹ , J A Vicente³ , M J Martínez⁴ , J A Pérez-Molina⁵ , A Calvo-Cano¹ , L Franco⁶ , I Parrón⁷ , A Molina³ , M Ruiz³ , J Álvarez⁷ , M P Sánchez-Seco⁶ , J Gascón¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB, Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona), Spain ² These authors contributed equally to this work ³ Internal Medicine Department, Hospital Virgen de la Luz, Cuenca, Spain ⁴ Microbiology Laboratory, Barcelona Centre for International Health Research ⁵ Tropical Medicine & Clinical Parasitology. Infectious Diseases Department, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, IRYCIS, Madrid, Spain ⁶ National Microbiologic Center. Virology and imported arbovirus department, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain ⁷ Unitat de Vigilància Epidemiològica Barcelonès Nord Maresme. Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya. Barcelona, Spain

Correspondence:
A Requena-Méndez
ana.requena cresib.cat
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Citation style for this article: Requena-Méndez A , García C , Aldasoro E , Vicente J A , Martínez M J , Pérez-Molina J A , Calvo-Cano A , Franco L , Parrón I , Molina A , Ruiz M , Álvarez J , Sánchez-Seco M P , Gascón J . Cases of chikungunya virus infection in travellers returning to Spain from Haiti or Dominican Republic, April-June 2014. Euro Surveill. 2014;19(28):pii=20853. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.28.20853 Received: 08 Jul 2014

Abstract

Ten cases of chikungunya were diagnosed in Spanish travellers returning from Haiti (n=2), the Dominican Republic (n=7) or from both countries (n=1) between April and June 2014. These cases remind clinicians to consider chikungunya in European travellers presenting with febrile illness and arthralgia, who are returning from the Caribbean region and Central America, particularly from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The presence of Aedes albopictus together with viraemic patients could potentially lead to autochthonous transmission of chikungunya virus in southern Europe.