Chikungunya in Uganda: Sometimes the Hoof Beats Really Are Zebras

Abstract : During the course of a serosurvey of healthy blood donors for evidence of hemorrhagic fever and arthropod-borne virus infections in Uganda, the greatest antibody prevalence was to Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) followed by West Nile (WNV), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHFV), Ebola (EBOV), dengue (DEN), yellow fever (YFV), Rift Valley fever (RVFV), Marburg (MARV), and Lassa virus (LASV). Further investigation of the CHIKV antibodies demonstrated that the infections were more likely the result of infection by the closely related alphavirus o'nyong-nyong (ONNV). This illustrates the need for an orthogonal system for the detection and identification of viruses causing disease.