Chapare Hemorrhagic Fever

Definition: Chapare hemorrhagic fever (CHHF) is caused by Chapare virus, a single-strand RNA virus of the Arenaviridae family. Chapare virus is certainly zoonotic, or animal-borne. The limited clinical information about CHHF comes from a small, poorly described cluster of hemorrhagic fever cases in rural Bolivia. A single fatal case yielded the only clinical description and blood specimen to date.

Symptoms and Treatment: The symptoms of CHHF, as reported in the only described patient, resemble those of other South American hemorrhagic fevers, such as Argentine HF or Bolivian HF. The incubation period is unknown, but for Argentine hemorrhagic fever (AHF) is 6 to 16 days. The CHHF clinical course included: Fever, headache, articulation and muscle pain, vomiting. These symptoms were followed by deterioration with multiple hemorrhagic signs. The only described CHHF patient died 14 days after onset of symptoms. Supportive therapy is important in CHHF. This includes: maintenance of hydration, management of shock, sedation, pain relief, usual precautions for patients with bleeding disorders, transfusions. Use of convalescent plasma therapy for treatment of AHF reduces mortality significantly and anecdotal evidence shows that the antiviral drug ribavirin may also hold promise for treating AHF. Ribavirin has also been considered for preventing development of disease in people exposed to other arenaviruses.

Statistics: Disease statistics analysis in Poland were resulted as the hallmark of the arenaviruses is their ability to establish chronic infections in their respective principal hosts. The failure to isolate arenavirus from Mexican deer mice in this study could be caused by small sample size or poor specimen quality. Alternatively, a cricetid rodent other than the Mexican deer mouse is the principal host of Ocozocoautla de Espinosa virus (OCEV).