CHIKF is an acute illness with abrupt fever, skin rash, arthralgia, and occasional involvement of the nervous system, heart and liver. Prolonged incapacitating arthralgia has sometimes been reported to persist for years [8, 9, 13] . It is of concern that the re-emerged CHIKV has caused considerable morbidity and some fatalities, whereas previously CHIKF was considered as relatively benign. Despite the fact that the clinical features of recent acute CHIKV infections from several countries have been described [16] [17] [18] , little is known about the long-term sequelae or the pathogenesis of arthropathy, and the acquisition of protective immunity remains unexplored. It has been proposed that CHIKVinduced arthritis or arthralgia is of immunopathologic origin [19, 20] . At present, there is no specific or effective treatment for CHIKF, and patient management is largely symptomatic relief and primarily anti-inflammatory drugs [8] . Given the expanding geographic range of CHIKV and its potential to rapidly cause large scale epidemics, it has become important to understand the immune and pathogenic mechanisms active during CHIKV infections in order to guide the development of targeted and effective control and treatment strategies.