Chandipura virus is a member of the order Mononegavirales, family Rhabdoviridae, genus Vesiculovirus.

The viruses of this family have non-segmented single-strand negative sense RNA genomes and encode. The virion is long as it's name suggests (rhabdos is Greek for "rod"), and usually bullet-shaped comprising a nucleocapsid covered with a lipid envelope. It contains an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP).

Chandipura virus was named after the patient from which the virus was isolated in 1965. Antibodies have been found in livestock and Rhesus monkeys.

Recently, scientists at Pune's National Institue of Virology have, for the first time, associated Chandipura virus with a severe and fulminant outbreak of human disease in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and the western state of Maharastra where more than 250 children have died. Symptoms included high fever, convulsions, diarrhoea and headaches.