Mayaro Fever
Einstein Health Glossary
ICD 10 - A93. 8
What is Mayaro fever?
The Mayaro virus is a Togavirus of the Alphavirus genus, a close relative of chikungunya. It causes a disease very similar to dengue and chikungunya: Mayaro fever.
Symptoms
High fever, joint pain, headache, rash, generalized lymph node swelling, and vomiting. The disease resembles chikungunya more than dengue due to the intense joint pain.
Transmission
In the Amazon region, the vectors are mosquitoes of the Haemagogus genus — also responsible for sylvatic yellow fever. The Ministry of Health has ruled out transmission by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Diagnosis
Currently, it is only performed using molecular methods: serological testing is not available.
Treatment
Purely symptomatic.
A new disease?
Not particularly. It has been described since the past decade in the Amazon region, when an outbreak occurred in 2008 in Pau d’Arco, near Belém in the state of Pará. It is not possible to determine how it began. Viral infections in the Amazon may have been present in small populations for quite some time.