chikungunya /chik′ungun′yə/ [Swahili, that which bends up] , a self-limited disease resembling dengue, not transmissible among people, seen mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia, caused by an alphavirus transmitted chiefly by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. Its most prominent symptoms are musculoskeletal, and it has occasionally been associated with hemorrhagic fever. It is a possible agent for bioterrorism dispersed as an aerosol or via infected mosquitoes.
