Chikungunya virus
Virus chikungunya
- Date
- 1952-1953 · confidence high
- Place
- Makonde Plateau, Mtwara, Tanzania
- Credited to
- Marion Robinson, W. H. R. Lumsden and R. W. Ross
- People
- 👤 William Henry Russell Lumsden
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Description of a fever epidemic with disabling joint pain, and isolation of the causative virus. The name comes from Makonde and refers to someone bent over with pain.
Robinson and Lumsden published the clinical description in 1955; Ross isolated the virus in 1953.
What it led to
- alphavirus surveillance
- recognition of the Indian Ocean epidemics (2005-2006)
- chikungunya vaccines (2023)