A team of scientists in the UK, Kenya, and Tanzania is set to conduct research to determine the extent to which chikungunya, a debilitating mosquito-borne disease, is affecting countries in East Africa.
Led by the University of Oxford, the scientists will investigate the number of children and adults affected by chikungunya at sites in Kenya and Tanzania.
The study dubbed ‘Accelerating Chikungunya Burden Estimation to Inform Vaccine Evaluation (ACHIEVE) will be funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
The team will bring together scientists from the University of Oxford, the University of Nairobi, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Centre for Global Health Research, the KEMRI-Welcome Trust Research Programme and the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania
The team will collect information for the next three years to estimate the number of people with chikungunya in the region and inform outbreak planning efforts.
According to Professor George Warimwe, the Lead of the ACHIEVE study, East Africa lacks reasonable estimates of the burden of chikungunya, and the clinical manifestations of the disease are not well characterized, especially in children.
“This investment is an important step towards improving our understanding of chikungunya in the region that will ultimately inform disease control strategies,” he said.
The study will also provide essential data to advance the vaccine development against chikungunya.
From early Spring 2025, all patients, including children, presenting at ten healthcare facilities across the two countries with fever or neurological symptoms will be screened and tested for the chikungunya virus.
The first-ever vaccine—developed by French pharmaceutical company Valneva with support from CEPI and the European Commission—was licensed last year in the US and has since been approved in Canada and the European Union.
CEPI and partners are now working to accelerate vaccine access in outbreak-affected regions that are most at risk from the disease, such as East Africa.
Vaccine development
Dr Gabrielle Breugelmans, Director of Epidemiology and Data Science at CEPI, observes that better insights into chikungunya’s prevalence and associated symptoms will be crucial in guiding the design and implementation of future vaccine trials and vaccination programmes in affected countries.
“Understanding at-risk groups in East Africa will also help determine the number of chikungunya vaccine doses to be included in global stockpiles for future deployment. Additionally, these insights will enable the development of targeted deployment strategies tailored to different locations, based on the varying epidemiological patterns.”
The ACHIEVE study research team will also investigate the prevalence of chikungunya among pregnant women, which may lead to mother-to-child virus transmission, and the economic burden associated with chikungunya on local health systems and communities.
ACHIEVE forms part of CEPI and the University of Oxford’s strategic partnership launched in 2023 to advance preparedness against known and novel infectious disease threats.
The study will be conducted in Kigoma and Tanga in Tanzania and Siaya, Kilifi and Isiolo in Kenya.
The research results will be published in open-access journals to ensure that the whole public health community can benefit from it.
Chikungunya origin
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease belonging to the Togavirus family. It is commonly transmitted by female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.
The name chikungunya derives from a word in the Kimakonde language, meaning “to become contorted”.
Chikungunya symptoms are typically characterized by fever and severe joint pain, which is often debilitating and can last for weeks, months or even years, severely impacting the quality of life.
Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue, and rash. Some populations are at higher risk of severe disease and death.
Chikungunya was first identified in Tanzania in 1952 and has since become widely distributed globally.
Since 2004, the disease has spread quickly, causing large-scale outbreaks worldwide. Today, over a billion people live in areas where Chikungunya is endemic.
Climate change could further amplify the threat Chikungunya poses by making more regions habitable for the mosquito vectors that transmit the virus, increasing the size of the population at risk of infection.
