The Story of Chikungunya

Chikungunya FeverChikungunya fever, a viral disease transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes(Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito)) to humans. Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a member of the genus Alphavirus, in the family Togaviridae. CHIKV was first isolated from the blood of a febrile patient in Tanzania in 1953, and has since been identified repeatedly in west, central and southern Africa and many areas of Asia, and has been cited as the cause of numerous human epidemics in those areas since that time. The virus circulates throughout much of Africa and Asia, with transmission thought to occur mainly between mosquitoes and monkeys.