Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging arbovirus that causes sporadic epidemics of primarily rheumatic disease1. The largest epidemic ever recorded started in 2004 in Africa, spread across Asia, into Oceania and reached the Americas in 2013; millions of people have been affected. Arthritic disease is associated with replication of CHIKV in joint tissues, a phenomena recapitulated in our adult wild-type mouse model of CHIKV infection and disease. We recently discovered that mice housed at 30°C prior to and during CHIKV infection showed significantly reduced CHIKV-induced arthritis, viraemia and viral replication in peripheral tissues compared to mouse housed at ambient temperatures (~21-23°C). This modulation of disease and infection was not observed in mice deficient in interferon (IFN α/β) responses (IRF3/7-/- mice2) housed at the different temperatures, suggesting that temperature modulates IFN α/β responses. Further investigation demonstrated that this effect of temperature was not due to increased IFN α/β production at higher temperatures, but instead due to higher temperatures increasing the anti-viral activity of IFN α/β. Temperature elevation may thus represent a cost-effective and simple treatment to alleviate symptoms associated with CHIKV infection; an approach reminiscent of that pioneered by the Australian nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny for the treatment of polio.