Kathy Holliman | Issue: September 2018 |
How to spot, diagnose and treat this rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral illness whose symptoms mimic arthritis
COVID-19 isn’t the only viral infection on the rise across the globe, so is chikungunya, which can cause arthritis-like symptoms and may lead to long-term joint pain.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A new chikungunya virus-like-particle vaccine appears to be safe and immunogenic, according to results from a phase 2 trial. “The phase 2 safety, tolerability and immunogenicity were similar to the data seen in an earlier phase 1 study,” Grace L. Chen, MD, of the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center, Bethesda,…
Doctors have had few options to treat the chronic rheumatoid arthritis-like symptoms associated with chikungunya virus infections beyond over-the-counter pain relievers. A recent study in Science Translational Medicine has spurred new optimism by finding that a combination therapy—the anti-rheumatic drug abatacept paired with a chikungunya-neutralizing monoclonal antibody—abolished acute symptoms in infected mice.1 The strategy must…