BackgroundThere are several unknown illnesses including chikungunya and dengue viruses that present withfever in children. Therefore there are many cases that are misdiagnosed. Consequently we performeda study to determine the clinical characteristics of dengue and chikungunya in order to assistclinicians in management.

MethodsA total of 196 children with history of fever for ≤ 10 days were enrolled prospectively at KilimanjaroChristian Medical Centre from September 2015 to May 2016. All cases were screened for chikungunyaand dengue viruses by PCR as well as other febrile illnesses such as malaria, bacteria and HIV throughother diagnostic method. We performed logistic regression to find association between clinicalsymptoms and chikungunya infection.

ResultsIn our study, 21.9% (43/196) of the cases received laboratory investigations and the diagnoses wereas follows; malaria only (n = 1, 0.5%), bacterial infections only (n = 4, 2.0%), HIV/AIDS only (n = 37,18.9%), as well as malaria, meningitis and urinary tract co-infection (n = 1, 0.5%). Furtherinvestigation of all cases revealed that 11.7%( 23) had chikungunya virus while none had denguevirus. For the cases of chikungunya, 78.3% (18) were below 5 years of age, 65.2%( 15) were females,majority were from Kilimanjaro 95.7%( 22) and Arusha region 4.3% (1). The clinical features were asfollows; nausea/vomit 50.0% (98), cough 48.5% (95), convulsion/comma 34.7%( 68), diarrhea 26.0%(51), joint pain 13.3% (26), sore throat 7.1%( 14), rashes 4.1%(8)chills 2.6%