Written by Abeer Athar |Published : July 23, 2025 5:50 PM IST
The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a serious warning on Tuesday, that has aimed at directing a global effort to help contain the sudden surge of the Chikungunya virus, which is a mosquito-borne illness that is known to be caused a large international outbreak that came into being around two decades ago.
It has been observed that the virus is now making a global presence again, with new and latent cases being reported from regions across the Indian Ocean region, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
As per the WHO medical officer Diana Rojas Alvarez, it has been noted that an estimate of 5.6 billion people who have been living in 119 countries are currently living under the looming threat of the risk of chikungunya infection. The disease can manifest as one of the serious health conditions and can cause symptoms like high fever, severe joint pain, and in some of the severe cases it can even reflect as some long-term disability.
What makes it concerning is that, yet, it doesn't have any approved treatment, and it can spread more quickly through mosquito populations."We are seeing history repeating itself," Rojas Alvarez said at a press briefing in Geneva, referencing the 2004-2005 chikungunya epidemic.
That outbreak that began in a small region ultimately ended up infecting a large chunk of nearly half a million people and has spread across the borders. The present resurgence of the virus began in the early months of 2025, which affected regions like La R union, Mayotte, and Mauritius initially as they suffered from significant outbreaks. La R union remains one of the worst-affected regions, as almost one-third of the population has already been infected.
The virus isn't just contained to these regions, but from here it has now travelled to the nearby regions that include countries like Madagascar, Somalia, and Kenya, and is now beginning to reach the parts of Southeast Asia, with India being on the radar of risk.
WHO has been showing great concern about the virus's alarming presence in Europe. While chikungunya has been a frequent visiting tropical disease, that is accelerated by changing climates and increased global travel
Since May 1, France has recorded a total tally of around 800 imported chikungunya cases.
What makes the situation concerning is that , 12 local transmission episodes have been put on the radar in southern French regions, which means that the patients have gotten the virus from local mosquitoes, as they have no history of travelling to an infected area. Alarmingly, a locally transmitted case was detected in Italy last week.
Chikungunya is one of the serious mosquito-borne diseases that is known to primarily transmit through the Aedes mosquitoes, especially the ones like Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, aka the tiger mosquito, which is also known to spread dengue and Zika viruses.
What makes this disease different is that, unlike many other mosquito-borne diseases, these mosquitoes are known to bite in the morning, which increases the possibility of infection.
It has been noted that many of the patients are known to recover, from the virus but they may see symptoms like joint pain that can last longer than the virus itself . If not taken seriously, there is a possibility that the virus can even trigger complications in elderly and the ones with preexisting chronic health conditions.
The symptoms of Chikungunya may include -
In Chikungunya, the treatment basically involves procedures like addressing fever and joint pain; other procedures for treatment may include.
The WHO has been constantly urging health officials around the world to cooperate and help in inhibiting the spread of the virus by improving surveillance, public awareness, and implementing parallel vector control programs to contain the further spread of the virus and to prevent the scope of another pandemic.
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