Chikungunya virus is a mosquito-borne alphavirus that causes fever and debilitating joint pains in humans. Joint pains may last months or years. It is vectored primarily by the tropical and sub-tropical mosquito, Aedes aegypti, but is also found to be transmitted by Aedes albopictus, a mosquito species that can also be found in more temperate climates. In recent years, the virus has risen from relative obscurity to become a global public health menace affecting millions of persons throughout the tropical and sub-tropical world and, as such, has also become a frequent cause of travel-associated febrile illness. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the biological and sociological underpinnings of its emergence and its future global outlook.