Fouzia Zeeshan Khan, Fatima Fasih, Mohammad Sohaib Tauheed, Saba Hassan, Sambreen Zameer.
Frequency of Chikungunya Virus Infection in the Tertiary Care Hospital of Karachi.
J Islamic Int Med Coll Jan ;16(3):146-50.

Objective: To determine the frequency of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection in the tertiary care hospital of st st Karachi during the time from 1 January 2017 till 31 December 2018. Study Design: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology, Dow Diagnostic st st Reference and Research Laboratory, Karachi, Pakistan from 1 January 2017 till 31 December 2018. Materials and Methods: Serum of suspected patients of Chikungunya virus infection was separated from venous blood samples and checked for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies against Chikungunya virus infections by applying a micro titer plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data was collected after the approval of ethical committee of Dow University of Health Sciences by Pacslink software and analysis was accomplished by using Statistical Package for Social Science SPSS version 17.0 for frequencies of age group, gender, and IgM positive Chikungunya virus infection. Results: Out of 4329 venous blood samples collected from suspected patients of Chikungunya virus infection. 1181(27%) showed the presence of IgM of Chikungunya virus (CHKV) infection. Majority of the patients were in the third decade of their lives with median age of 38.74 years. The proportion of males was slightly more 605 (51%) than females 575 (48%) (Table I). Age group 16-44 years showed high prevalence 627 (53%) as compared to other age groups (2017-2018) (Figure: 1). Incidence of CHIKV was higher in October and November 2017(37.8%), than 2018 (Figure: 2). Conclusion: This study concluded that the frequency of Chikungunya virus Infection was higher during the st st period from 1 October till 31 November 2017.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com