O'nyong-nyong virus (first arbovirus transmitted by Anopheles)
Virus o'nyong-nyong (primer arbovirus transmitido por Anopheles)
- Date
- 1959 · confidence high
- Place
- Gulu, Uganda
- Credited to
- Team at the Entebbe Virus Research Institute (A. J. Haddow and colleagues)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
An alphavirus isolated during the 1959 outbreak in northern Uganda that infected about two million people across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Its Acholi name means 'joint-breaking'.
The virus belongs to the Semliki Forest complex and is close to chikungunya; it recurs sporadically (Uganda, 1996). The vector was identified in studies after the 1959 outbreak.
What it led to
- the only known arbovirus transmitted mainly by Anopheles
- a model for alphavirus and chikungunya research
- arbovirus surveillance at the Entebbe institute