Chikungunya is caused by CHIKV (chikungunya virus), an emerging and re-emerging arthropod-vectored viral infection that causes a febrile disease with primarily long term sequelae of arthralgia and myalgia and is fatal in a small fraction of infected patients. Sporadic outbreaks have been reported from different parts of the world chiefly Africa, Asia, the Indian and Pacific ocean regions, Europe and lately even in the Americas. Currently, treatment is primarily symptomatic as no vaccine, antibody-mediated immunotherapy or antivirals are available. Chikungunya belongs to a family of arthritogenic alphaviruses which have many pathophysiological similarities. Chikungunya arthritis has similarities and differences with rheumatoid arthritis. Although research into arthritis caused by these alphaviruses have been ongoing for decades and significant progress has been made, the mechanisms underlying viral infection and arthritis are not well understood. In this review, we give a background to chikungunya and the causative virus, outline the history of alphavirus arthritis research and then give an overview of findings on arthritis caused by CHIKV. We also discuss treatment options and the research done so far on various therapeutic intervention strategies.

基孔肯雅热是由 CHIKV（基孔肯雅病毒）引起的，这是一种新出现和重新出现的节肢动物载体病毒感染，可引起发热性疾病，主要是关节痛和肌痛的长期后遗症，并且在一小部分感染患者中是致命的。据报道，世界不同地区主要是非洲、亚洲、印度洋和太平洋地区、欧洲，最近甚至在美洲发生了零星爆发。目前，治疗主要是对症治疗，因为没有可用的疫苗、抗体介导的免疫疗法或抗病毒药物。基孔肯雅热属于致关节炎甲病毒家族，其具有许多病理生理学相似性。基孔肯雅热关节炎与类风湿性关节炎有异同。尽管对由这些甲病毒引起的关节炎的研究已经进行了几十年并取得了重大进展，但病毒感染和关节炎的潜在机制尚不清楚。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了基孔肯雅热和致病病毒的背景，概述了甲病毒性关节炎研究的历史，然后概述了由 CHIKV 引起的关节炎的研究结果。我们还讨论了治疗方案和迄今为止对各种治疗干预策略所做的研究。