Chikungunya is caused by

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. • Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus that provokes arthralgia and, potentially, severe complications in humans. • A multidisciplinary effort, carried out over the past 5 years, allowed a thoughtful characterization of this mysterious virus. • Recently, there was an unexpectedly severe epidemic of CHIKV in countries of the Indian Ocean region. This outbreak seems to have been the result of a striking adaptation of the virus to a new arthropod, Aedes albopictus (the tiger mosquito). • Analyses of isolates from this outbreak have resulted in several interesting findings regarding the clinical onset and physiopathology of this virus. • Progress has also been made to further our understanding of the interactions of CHIKV with its human host, the cellular tropism of the virus and the mechanisms of triggering the innate immune response. • Clinical development has also seen recent advances. Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne alphavirus responsible for a recent, unexpectedly severe epidemic in countries of the Indian Ocean region. Although many alphaviruses have been well studied, little was known about the bi...