Chikungunya virus: Update on molecular biology, epidemiology and current strategies
Article Sidebar
PDF: 95
PlumX Metrics
PlumX Metrics provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and many more) in the online environment. Collectively known as PlumX Metrics, these metrics are divided into five categories to help make sense of the huge amounts of data involved and to enable analysis by comparing like with like.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Main Article Content
Abstract
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an arthropod-borne virus, is the aetiological agent of a disease characterized by several aspecific symptoms including fever, myalgia and arthralgia. The virus is primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito of Aedes genus. This virus was first isolated in Tanzania in 1953, from which it spread to other African countries, Asia, Northern and Southern America, Europe and Oceania. Today, many human cases of CHIKV infection have been identified. The diffusion of CHIKV across the world, including Italy, is due to multiple factors amongst which the wide distribution of its vectors and high transmission efficiency play a crucial role. Currently, there are no specific treatments and effective vaccines against CHIKV; indeed, available therapies allow symptoms mitigation and some promising vaccines are undergoing clinical trials. The purpose of this review is to offer an updated picture of CHIKV molecular biology, epidemiology and vector distribution, clinical features and strategies for infection prevention and treatment.
