Chikungunya.

Chikungunya is an acute viral disease characterised by fever and painful arthralgia. The arthritic symptoms associated with chikungunya can be debilitating and may persist for months or even years in some patients. Severe neurological complications such as encephalitis have also been reported during recent large outbreaks. The disease is caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a mosquito-borne alphavirus from the Togaviridae family, which has recently emerged to become one of the most important exotic viral threats worldwide. Chikungunya is endemic throughout Africa, and over the past decade, it has also spread throughout the Indian Ocean, Asia, the South Pacific, southern Europe, the Caribbean and Central America. The rapid emergence of CHIKV has been linked to expansion of the mosquito vector species, Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus, throughout most tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Furthermore, mutations in some strains of CHIKV have been associated with increased transmissibility of the virus. The lack of a commercial vaccine and the failure of vector control strategies to limit the expansion of chikungunya have prompted the need for further options to prevent the spread of this disease.