A traveller recently asked us: “If I’m having the Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine, why would I need a chikungunya vaccine too? Doesn’t it cover mosquitoes anyway?”
It doesn’t. A vaccine covers one germ, not the mosquito.
The bus analogy
Think of a mosquito as a bus. The bus doesn’t make anyone ill. It just carries passengers, and the passengers are the germs.
A vaccine is a bouncer trained to recognise one passenger only. The JE vaccine teaches your body to spot the JE virus and throw it off the bus. If chikungunya climbs aboard, the JE bouncer has never seen it before and lets it straight past.
That’s why the mosquito is called a vector, a carrier. It’s also why bite avoidance matters whatever vaccines you’ve had: it stops the bus reaching you.
The three main mosquito types
A 2025 peer-reviewed review names Aedes, Anopheles and Culex as the most medically important groups.
Aedes (the day bus)
Bites during the day, especially at dawn and dusk
Breeds in small pots of water near homes, so it is common in towns and cities
Carries: dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever
Where: tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, with locally acquired cases now appearing in parts of Europe and the USA
Anopheles (the night bus)
Bites mainly from dusk to dawn
Carries: malaria
Where: parts of Africa, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and some Pacific islands
Culex (the evening and night bus)
Bites mostly in the evening and at night
Carries: Japanese encephalitis and West Nile virus
JE: Asia and the Western Pacific, mainly rural rice-growing and pig-farming areas
West Nile: found on every continent except Antarctica
The main diseases and whether there’s a vaccine
Malaria: Anopheles. No vaccine for travellers. Prevention is the ABCD approach: Awareness of risk, Bite prevention, Chemoprophylaxis (tablets) and prompt Diagnosis.
Dengue: Aedes, daytime. Vaccine available (Qdenga). See our dengue article for who can have it.
Chikungunya: Aedes, daytime. Causes sudden fever and severe joint pain that can last months or years. Two vaccines are approved in the UK: Ixchiq (ages 18 to 59) and Vimkunya (ages 12 and over).
Yellow fever: day-biting mosquitoes. Parts of Africa, South and Central America and Trinidad. Vaccine available (single dose), and some countries require a certificate.
Japanese encephalitis: Culex, dusk to dawn. Vaccine available.
Zika: Aedes, daytime. No vaccine. It can cause serious birth defects, so pregnant travellers and those planning pregnancy need individual advice.
West Nile virus: Culex, evening and night, though some other mosquitoes that carry it bite by day. No vaccine. About 1 in 150 infected people become seriously ill.
So only dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and JE have vaccines, and each covers only its own disease.
A note on the chikungunya vaccine
In February 2026, the UK medicines regulator (MHRA) restricted Ixchiq after a safety review. It should not be used in people of any age with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease or a weakened immune system. Caution is advised for people with two or more long-term conditions. Vimkunya has shown no safety signal so far, though it hasn’t been used as widely. This is why we assess chikungunya vaccination individually.
Closer to home
As of late September 2026, TravelHealthPro reported 125 locally acquired chikungunya cases in France, and locally acquired West Nile virus cases in several European countries.
Bite avoidance works against all of them
Day bus: use repellent during the day, not just at night
Night bus: use repellent at night and sleep under a treated net or in a screened or air-conditioned room
Wear loose clothing that covers arms and legs
Remove standing water around where you stay
Next steps
Which diseases matter depends on where you’re going, when, and what you’ll be doing. Book a travel consultation at Trustwell Clinic and we’ll work out which vaccines, if any, are right for you.
Trustwell Clinic, 72a Stockport Road, Marple, SK6 6AH
Tel: 0161 883 7522
www.trustwellclinic.co.uk
Sources: TravelHealthPro (NaTHNaC) disease pages and outbreak updates; WHO vector-borne diseases fact sheet; “Review of selected mosquito-borne diseases” (Frontiers in Public Health, 2025, DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1712094); MHRA/JCVI chikungunya vaccine advice as summarised by TravelHealthPro. General information, not an individual risk assessment.