Pogosta disease

Pogosta disease is a viral disease, established to be identical with other diseases, Karelian fever and Ockelbo disease.^[1][2] The names are derived from the words Pogosta, Karelia and Ockelbo, respectively.

It has long been suspected that the disease is caused by a Sindbis-like virus, a positive-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Alphavirus genus and family Togaviridae.^[1] In 2002 a strain of Sindbis was isolated from patients during an outbreak of the Pogosta disease in Finland, confirming the hypothesis.^[3]

This disease is mainly found in the Eastern parts of Finland; a typical Pogosta disease patient is a middle-aged person who has been infected through a mosquito bite while picking berries in the autumn. The prevalence of the disease is about 100 diagnosed cases every year, with larger outbreaks occurring in 7-year intervals. ^[3]

The symptoms of the disease include usually rash, as well as mild fever and other flu-like symptoms; in most cases the symptoms last less than 5 days. However, in some cases, the patients develop a painful arthritis. There are no known chemical agents available to treat the disease.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Identity of Karelian fever and Ockelbo viruses determined by serum dilution-plaque reduction neutralization tests and oligonucleotide mapping", Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1988, Dec;39(6):607-10PubMed
2. ^ Pogosta Disease, by Maria Laine, University of Turku, 2002, ISBN 9512921294
3. ^ ^{a b c} Kurkela S, Manni T, Vaheri A, Vapalahti O. Causative agent of Pogosta disease isolated from blood and skin lesions, Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. Published 2004 May. (accessed 2007-10-16)