Chikungunya in Brazil, an endless epidemic

Abstract

This article examines how chikungunya virus diseaseis epidemiologically and politically invisible in Brazil, unlike otherdiseases related to the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, such as Zika,dengue, and yellow fever. It demonstrates the intricacy ofidentifying the presence of chikungunya, as its effects are generallymaterialised in pain, which is difficult to measure and quantify, andthus is invisible to medical and state bureaucracy. As with otherchronic diseases, chikungunya transforms identities and socialrelations among those affected. By analysing the situation in Natal,in Northeast Brazil, and considering epidemics as social, economic,and political narratives as well as biomedical phenomena, thearticle asks how chikungunya might end when it has not evenofficially started.