Epidemiological trend of chikungunya outbreak in Pakistan: 2016–2018

Abstract

An unprecedented expansion of vector-borne diseases, especially those caused by viruses transmitted through mosquitoes, has posed a serious public health challenge worldwide. Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), which mainly invades tropical and subtropical regions, is one of the recently emerging pathogens associated with severe morbidity in humans. Although Pakistan is known to be endemic for arboviral infections, only Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and dengue have been officially recognized over the last three decades, despite a recent trend of increasingly frequent chikungunya cases, first detected in December 2016.