Awareness towards Chikungunya virus infection risk by general practitioners in Rome: a questionnaire based survey before the 2017 outbreak

Autochthonous cases of Chikungunya (CHIKV) have been recently detected in Rome. A survey was conduct- ed prior to the 2017 outbreak to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices towards CHIKV infections on 103 randomly selected general practitioners (GPs), practicing in the centre of Rome. Only 24.3% were aware of CHIKV and completed the interview. Among completers, the knowledge of basic elements of CHIKV in- fection was insufficient. Only two thirds of them were able to identify possible CHIKV cases in hypothetical clinical scenarios presented by the interviewer. Our study highlights the need to improve GP knowledge to- wards CHIKV, as a necessary step to establish an efficacious epidemic surveillance.