Over 30 years ago as a graduate student taking a course in medical entomology, I learned about all kinds of diseases spread by insects.  By far, most of these were tropical and exotic-sounding.  I figured that, if I lived and worked in the U.S., my chances of encountering most of these pathogens was practically nil. Chikungunya (chik-un-GOON-ya) virus was one of those diseases I memorized way back then, and have since mostly forgotten.  The chikungunya disease was first described in 1952 during an outbreak in southern Tanzania (east Africa).  The name… Read More →