Chikungunya Vaccine: Do You Need It?

Which chikungunya vaccine is available now?

One chikungunya vaccine is available in the United States: Vimkunya. It is approved for people aged 12 and older, given as a single shot in the arm. The older vaccine, IXCHIQ, is gone — its maker pulled it from the US market in January 2026.

Vimkunya is a virus-like particle vaccine. It contains proteins shaped like the outside of the chikungunya virus, but no viral genetic material at all. Your immune system recognizes the shape and learns to defend against it. Because there is no live virus in the shot, it cannot give you chikungunya.

The FDA approved Vimkunya in February 2025 based on two clinical trials involving more than 3,500 people aged 12 and older.

Do you need the chikungunya vaccine for your trip?

For most short vacations, no. The CDC recommends this vaccine mainly for travelers going to a country with an active chikungunya outbreak. For countries that carry background risk but no current outbreak, it is something to consider rather than something advised — and mainly if you are staying a long time.

Here is how the CDC divides it:

Where things stand right now

Outbreak status changes. The CDC keeps a current list on its Areas at Risk for Chikungunya page.

The destinations our patients ask about

Seychelles

The CDC issued a travel notice for Seychelles on February 5, 2026, after an outbreak that grew through the rainy season from mid-December 2025. If you are going now, this vaccine is recommended.

Honeymooners often assume a resort protects them. It helps, but the mosquitoes that carry chikungunya bite during the day, around pools, beaches and gardens — not at night like malaria mosquitoes. Being outdoors in daylight is exactly when exposure happens.

Bolivia

Bolivia is the destination where the answer changes most depending on where you actually go.

The CDC notice covers Santa Cruz and Cochabamba Departments, not the whole country. That distinction matters because the mosquito that spreads chikungunya cannot survive at high altitude.

Research across sixteen countries in the Americas found that above 1,600 meters, less than 1% of land area supports this mosquito. Above 2,000 meters, only about 1% of historical cases of related mosquito-borne disease were ever reported. The mosquito needs warmth to complete its life cycle, and altitude takes that away.

The standard Bolivian tourist circuit sits far above that line:

A trip built around La Paz, Uyuni and Lake Titicaca sits more than a kilometer above where this mosquito lives. On current evidence the risk is very low, and many travelers on that itinerary do not need this vaccine.

Two things change that answer. Cochabamba Department stretches down into tropical lowlands — the Chapare region — so the department being on the list does not mean the city is the risk. And a connection or side trip through Santa Cruz puts you in the outbreak zone.

In practice, this is the conversation I have most often: the shot is not about the country on your passport stamp, it is about the elevation and the days you actually spend in mosquito territory.

When during the year

Chikungunya spreads when mosquitoes are breeding, which means risk rises during and just after rainy seasons. It never disappears entirely — mosquito eggs survive dry spells — but the difference between wet season and dry season is real.

The Brazilian figure comes from a study of more than 253,000 confirmed cases between 2013 and 2022, which found every major outbreak wave peaked between February and June. Large countries span several climates, so treat these as general guidance rather than firm dates.

How risky is chikungunya?

Chikungunya is rarely fatal, and most people recover within seven to ten days. The real concern is joint pain. About one in three people still have joint pain more than six weeks after infection, and for a smaller group it lasts years.

Symptoms usually appear three to seven days after an infected mosquito bites you. The most common are sudden fever and joint pain, often with headache, muscle aches, joint swelling or a rash. The same mosquitoes also spread dengue, and the two illnesses look alike enough in the first few days that doctors often test for both.

What makes chikungunya different from other travel illnesses is what can happen afterward. Pooled research across 38 studies and more than 12,500 people found 34.5% still had joint pain beyond six weeks. A large Brazilian study found 42.5% had joint pain lasting three months or more, with about 30% still affected a year and a half later. A Colombian study following confirmed cases found one in eight still had joint pain three years on.

Women, older adults and people carrying extra weight are more likely to develop the long-lasting form. Newborns, people over 65 and people with underlying health conditions are at higher risk of severe illness in the first place.

Is it worth getting the chikungunya vaccine?

That depends on where you are going and who you are. If you are traveling to an active outbreak — Seychelles right now — it is straightforward. If you are taking a short trip to a country with background risk, you are weighing several hundred dollars against a small chance of an illness that can linger.

At Travel Clinic NY, the Vimkunya vaccine is $400. The office visit fee is $90 per person, charged once per trip. So one traveler pays $490 in total. You can see what other travel vaccines cost if you are pricing a whole trip.

We do not accept insurance for travel vaccination. We give you the paperwork to submit for reimbursement, but only some insurers pay it back, and we cannot promise yours will.

That is real money, and it should be part of the decision rather than something you discover at checkout.

For everyone, whether you get the shot or not: insect repellent, long sleeves, and air conditioning or window screens all work, and they guard against dengue and Zika at the same time.

What happened to IXCHIQ?

IXCHIQ was the first chikungunya vaccine approved in the US, in 2023. After reports of serious side effects in older adults, the FDA suspended its license in August 2025, and the manufacturer withdrew it from the US market entirely in January 2026. It is no longer available here.

Of the two deaths on Réunion, one was ultimately attributed to the vaccine. A published case report describes an 84-year-old man who developed brain inflammation after vaccination, with the vaccine's own virus strain found in his spinal fluid. French health authorities recognized it as plausibly caused by the vaccine.

IXCHIQ remains licensed in Europe, Canada, the UK and Brazil. It is only the US market it has left.

Is Vimkunya safe?

This is the most important difference between the two vaccines. IXCHIQ was withdrawn largely because some people developed symptoms resembling the disease it was meant to prevent. That happened because it contained live, weakened virus. Vimkunya does not.

In the trial of adults 65 and older, no one in either the vaccine group or the placebo group developed medically attended joint problems.

Vimkunya was tested in two clinical trials with more than 3,500 people aged 12 and over, including a separate trial specifically in people over 65.

Two honest caveats. Fainting can happen after any injected vaccine, which is why you stay in the office briefly afterward. And Vimkunya is expected to be safer than IXCHIQ for vulnerable groups because of how it is built — but no trial has compared the two head to head.

What are the side effects of the chikungunya vaccine?

Most side effects are mild and short-lived. In people aged 12 to 64, the most common were soreness at the injection site (23.7%), tiredness (19.9%), headache (18.0%) and muscle aches (17.6%). Reactions typically started within a day or two and cleared within about a day.

In the tables below, "placebo" means a dummy injection with no vaccine in it. Comparing the two columns shows how much of each symptom the vaccine actually caused.

Ages 12 to 64

Ages 65 and over

The placebo column is worth reading. Several of these — fatigue, headache, joint pain, nausea — happened at nearly the same rate in people who received a dummy injection. Some of what people notice after any vaccine would have happened anyway.

Side effects were noticeably milder in people 65 and over than in younger adults.

Some travelers report symptoms starting later than the trial average, around day four or five. Individual experience varies.

Who should not get the chikungunya vaccine?

How long is a chikungunya vaccine good for?

One dose, and no booster is currently recommended. In the trials, protective antibody levels appeared by day 22 in 97.8% of people aged 12 to 64 and 87.3% of people 65 and over. How many years that protection lasts, nobody yet knows.

The FDA approved Vimkunya in February 2025, so researchers are still collecting long-term data. Anyone telling you a single dose gives lifetime protection is going beyond the evidence.

What we do know: one dose produces a strong response in most people within three weeks, and the CDC does not currently advise a second dose.

When-to-get-it-before-you-travel

At least three weeks — 21 days — before you fly. That is when the trials measured antibody levels. Booking four to six weeks ahead gives you room if appointments are tight.

If you are leaving sooner than three weeks, you can still be vaccinated. You simply will not be fully protected for the early part of your trip, which makes choosing an insect repellent and covering up more important in those first days. That is a reasonable choice, not a wasted one — particularly for a longer stay, where protection kicks in partway through.

We keep Vimkunya in stock and give it in the office, so there is no waiting on an order. Same-day appointments are available, and we accept walk-ins during posted hours.

Common questions

This page is general information, not medical advice for your specific trip. Your plan depends on your health and your exact itinerary. See a travel medicine provider before you go.