Geographical distribution of alphaviruses

The first alphavirus found is WEE, as a filterable viral agent, in Oct 1930.

Alphaviruses are typically transmitted by mosquitos, and they have been isolated worldwide: New World, Old World and Oceania; from the Tropics to near the Arctic Circle.

(Some of the following is conjecture, based on atlas gazing or map searches.
If you know better, Please send in the correct information).

Virus	Place of isolation	Date
Aura	near Aura River, near Bélem, Brazil from Culex sp., using human bait. Member of WEE complex.	1/1959
Babanki	Babanki, Northwest Cameroon.
Barmah Forest	in the Murray Valley, Victoria, Australia	2/1974
Bebaru	Bebar River on west coast of Malayan peninsula. (then) Malaya	2/1956
Bijou Bridge	Member of VEE complex, IIIB variety.
Buggy Creek
Cabassou	near Cayenne, French Guiana. Mosquitos. Member of VEE complex V.	9/1968
chikungunya	Southern Province of Tanagnyika Territory (now Tanzania). From infected humans and mosquitos (including Aedes aegypti Swahili, meaning "that which bends up", in reference to the posture due to joint pain associated with the disease.	2/1953
Eastern equine encephalitis	Coastal areas of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersy, Virginia, USA	9/1933
Everglades	Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. Mosquitos. Member of VEE complex, subtype II.	5/1963.
Fort Morgan	Town in Morgan County 80 miles NE of Denver, Colorado, USA. Member of WEE complex.	9/1973
Getah	Near Kuala Lumpur, (then) Malaya. From Culex gelidus	10/1955
Girdwood	Johannesburg, South Africa. From human skin lesion. A Sindbis virus strain.	1963
Highland J	Florida, USA. Member of WEE complex.	6/1960
Igbo Ora	Town in Nigeria, 70 km west of Ibadan. From febrile patient. An o'nyong-nyong virus strain.	1966
Kyzylagach	Kyzylaga'cskÿ Zaporednik, peninsula into Caspian Sea. A preserve in the then Azerbaijan SSR	8/1969
Mayaro	Cat's Hill region of Mayaro County, southeastern Trinidad. From blood of infected human.	1954
Middelburg	?Town 150 miles N of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Or, ?Conway, Middelburg, South Africa	4/1957
Mucambo	Oriboca Forest, Brazil. From monkey. Member of VEE complex IIIA.	12/1954
Murweh	S. Queensland, Australia	1976
Ndumu	Ndumu Game Preserve, South Africa, on the border with Mozambique	5/1959
Ockelbo	Town 100 miles N of Stockholm, Sweden. The prototype Edsbyn strain was collected in Edsbyn, from a pool of Culiseta sp. mosquitos. A Sindbis virus strain. The virus is probably identical to, or closely related to the viruses that cause Karelian fever (in then USSR) and Pogosta disease (in Finland)	1982
o'nyong-nyong	northwestern Uganda. Prototype Gulu strain isolated during epidemic (2 million people, 1959 thru 1962), from blood of infected patients and from Anopholes funestus and An. gambiae The SG650 strain is from another epidemic started in 1996, in Uganda. In the Acholi language, o'nyong-nyong means "joint breaker" or "weakening of the joints", in reference to the joint pain associated with the disease.	7/1959
Pixuna	Brazil. Mosquitos. Member of VEE complex, subtype IV.	9/1961
Ross River	Ross River, at Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Strain T48, from Aedes vigilax	2/1959
S.A.AR86	Collected near Johannesburg, South Africa, from pool of Culex sp. mosquitos. A Sindbis virus strain.	1954
Sagiyama	Sagiyama Heronry, 20 miles north of Tokyo, Japan	7/1956
Semliki Forest	River from Lake Edward to Lake Albert on border of Uganda and Zaire The virus was actually isolated in Budiyama, Bwamba County, Uganda	8/1942
Sindbis	variously village or health district in Al Qalyobiyah, Nile delta, 40 miles N of Cairo, Egypt. Prototype strain is Ar-339, from (probably) Culex univittatus	8/1952
Southern elephant seal	Macquarie Island, Australlia. From Lepidophthirus macrorhini louse on Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina). Member of SFV complex.	1999
Tonate	French Guiana. Bird. Member of VEE complex, IIIB variety.	1/1973
Una	?Town on west coast of Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro. Or, ?river, ditto, state of Ceará. Isolated at Inst. Agrom. de Norte Forest, close to Belem, Brazil; consistent with either of above.	9/1959
Venezuelan equine encephalitis	Guajira Peninsula, Venezuela. From brain of infected horse.	1936
Western equine encephalitis	Merced County, California, USA. From infected horse brain.	10/1930
Whataroa	Town in South Island, W of Southern Alps, New Zealand. Whataroa, Westland National Park, New Zealand	2/1962
XJ-160	Along the Yili River, Xinjiang Province, China. From pool of Anopheles mosquitos. A Sindbis virus strain.	1990
YN87448	Yunan Province, China. From febrile patient. A Sindbis virus strain.	1992

References (those not available online).

General Information: T.P. Monath (ed) "The Arboviruses: Epidemiology and Ecology". CRC Press, Inc. Boca Raton, FL.

chikungunya: RW Ross 1956. The Newala epidemic. III. The virus: isolation, pathogenic properties and relationship to the epidemic.J Hyg 54:177.

Eastern equine encephalitis: LT Giltner & MS Shahan 1933. The 1933 outbreak of infectious equine encephalomyelitis in the eastern states. North Am Vet 14:25.

Girdwood: H Malherbe, M Strickland-Cholmley, AL Jackson. 1963. Sindbis virus infection in man. Report of a case with recovery of virus from skin lesions. S Afr Med J 37:547-552.

Mayaro: CR Anderson, WG Downs, GH Wattley, NW Ahin, AA Reese 1957.Mayaro virus: a new human disease agent. II. Isolation from blood of patients in Trinidad, B.W.I. Am J Trop Med Hyg 6:1012.

o'nyong nyong: AJ Haddow, CW Davies, AJ Walker 1960. O'nyong nyong fever: an epidemic virus disease in East Africa I. Introdction. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 54:517.

Sagiyama: WF Scherer, T Izumi, JJ McCown, L Hardy. 1962. Sagiyama virus, a new group A arthropod-borne virus from Japan. I. Isolation, immunologic classification, and ecologic observations. Amer J Trop Med 11:255-68

Sindbis: RM Taylor, HS Hurlbut, TH Work, JR Kingston, TE Frothingham 1955. Sindbis virus: A newly recognized arthropod-transmitted virus. Am J Trop Med Hyg 4:844.

Venezuelan equine encephalitis: CE Beck & RWG Wyckoff 1938. Venezuelan equine encephalitis. Science 88:530. V Kubes. & FA Rios 1939. The causative agent of infectious equine encephalomyelitis in Venezuela. Science 90:20.

Western equine encephalitis: KF Meyer, CM Haring, B Howitt 1931. The etiology of epizootic encephalomyelitis of horses in the San Jaoquin Valley. Science 74:227.