Chikungunya Definition
chēko͝on-go͝onyə
noun
An acute infectious disease caused by a mosquito-borne virus, characterized by fever, rash, and joint pain, and seen primarily in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.
American Heritage Medicine
Origin of Chikungunya
Makonde (Bantu language of the region of Tanzania where an epidemic in the 1950s led to the first medical description of the disease) chi- sing. n. pref. -kungunyala to become contorted, fold up (so called because joint pain causes sufferers from the disease to assume a hunched posture)
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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