Özet:

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod-borne alphavirus that causes an acute febrile disease, chikungunya fever. CHIKV virus is geographically distributed in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Chikungunya fever outbreaks have been from India since 2006. The incubation period is 2-4 days, and the disease is characterized by the onset of high fever and severe arthralgia. Other symptoms can be rash, headache, fatigue, nausea-vomiting, and myalgias. Phylogenetic analysis divided Chikungunya virus isolates into three distinct genotypes based on geographical origins: the first, the West Africa genotype, consisting of isolates from Senegal and Nigeria; the second contained strains from East/Central/South African genotype, while the third contained solely Asian. The most recent common ancestor for the recent epidemic, which ravaged Indian Ocean islands and Indian subcontinent in 2004 - 2007, was found to date in 2002. There are predictions regarding the presence of Aedes species mosquitos that can transmit this virus in Turkey. This review will be an alarming signal for the clinicans in our country to consider Chikungunya fever in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with fever, arthralgia and rash.