Chikungunya also known as "Chikungunya fever" or also "Chikungunya epidemic arthritis " is a type of virus transmitted by certain Aedes carrier mosquitoes to humans through a bite. The term chikungunya comes from a voice in the Makonde language that means "to wriggle" due to the severe pain caused by this condition. Therefore, this word can be defined according to the sources, as a virus that causes a disease of the twisted man due to the strong joint pain caused by the arthritis that characterizes the disease.
The origin of the virus, according to the World Health Organization, lies in Tanzania in 1952 during an epidemic, but it was not until 1955 that one of the assistants to the epidemiologist named Marion Robinson outlined it. It should be noted that chikungunya is strongly related to the virus called o'nyong'nyong, also transmitted by infected mosquito bites.
The different studies carried out have reported that so far in recent years this virus has occurred in around 40 countries ranging from Africa, the south of the Arabian peninsula, India and South East Asia. By 2007 the disease was reported for the first time in the European continent, specifically in northwestern Italy during an outbreak. In the American continent, PAHO / WHO confirmed the first cases of autochthonous transmission of chikungunya in December 2013.
Chikungunya is transmitted from human to human through the bite of a female mosquito, by those mosquitoes involved in the transmission of dengue (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus) also known as “white legs”. After the bite, the symptoms usually appear between four and eight days, causing a disease characterized by an acute febrile phase together with pain in the joints of the extremities, pain that can persist for a few years in certain cases.
