Pune: Avantika software engineer (name changed) complained of severe pain and swollen in his right knee joint for two days, making it impossible to walk.
When X-ray scanning does not show something significant, the blood test is done, which reveals that the number of platelets falls under one lakh, showing exposure to viral infections.
The 30-year-old profession was then diagnosed with post-viral arthralgia and treated with medicine, which led to full recovery.
This is how many patients with viral infections that come to orthopedic clinics in the city for the past two months.
In India, dengue fever and chikungunya are the main causes of viral arthritis, especially during the post-monsoon period, experts said.
Pune has seen a sharp rise in cases of viral infections, including seasonal viruses, dengue fever and chikungunya, for the past three-four months.
“Since September, we have seen around two to four cases of virus arthritis every week at our clinic.
While in some patients, one major joint is involved, some have complained of pain in several joints (poly-arthralgia),” said Orthopedic Surgeon Kiran Sheete.
Some patients descend with fever followed by joint pain, others experience joint pain followed by symptoms such as fever, nausea, malaise.
“If it is not treated correctly, it can cause arthritis changes in the joints,” Sheete said, who heads the Spinalogy Clinic in Aundh.
“Joint pain is around 70% of patients, who have some kind of viral infection, recover within six weeks.
Those who continue to experience pain even after six weeks have chronic virus arthritis or post-virus inflammatory arthritis.
About 30% of patients when I treats this type of arthritis of this chronic virus, “said Rheumatologist Pravin Patil.
Viral infections, in 30% of cases, frequent immune systems in such a way that they remain in attack mode (autoimmune response) even after patients recover, patil said.
Rheumatologist Girish Kakade said, “We need to diagnose these patients well because some of these patients can develop chronic arthritis if not treated earlier.” The importance must be given for related nutritional deficiency such as vitamin B12 deficiency.
“Healthy nutritious food and early care can help avoid long-term complications,” said the Doctor of the Santaji Kadam family.