White plan, vaccination marketing campaign … what you’ll want to know concerning the chikungunya epidemic in Reunion | EUROtoday

L’Chikungunya epidemic intensified in Reunion. Nearly 6,000 new circumstances had been recognized in per week on the island, bringing the variety of sufferers to greater than 20,000. “The most delicate weeks are looming,” stated Overseas Minister Manuel Valls on Friday April 4.

“The epidemic of Chikungunya continues to progress, and the peak is expected for mid-April or at the start of the third week of April,” stated Gérard Cotallon, managing director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) in Reunion, on the microphone of France Info. Between March 17 and 23, almost 6,000 new circumstances of this illness transmitted by the tiger mosquito have been recorded. For the identical interval, there have been 129 hospitalizations of greater than twenty-four hours. 1 / 4 of those sufferers was lower than 6 months outdated and virtually half was over 65 years outdated.

To date, two folks, aged 86 and 96, have been declared lifeless from Chikungunya. Several different deaths are “under investigation” to find out their hyperlink with the virus, in keeping with Public Health France. The cities of Saint-Denis and Saint-Pierre are actually some of the affected sectors on the territory.

White plan in Reunion hospitals

The white plan was launched in Reunion. This system makes it doable to deprogram sure operations or to recall medical personnel in depart. In a press launch, the CHU de la Réunion calls on the inhabitants to go to the emergency room “in the event of real medical emergency. He specifies that his antenna in the south of the island faces a “state of affairs of most capability rigidity” due to the influx of contaminated patients.

The staff who live in this area “can be contaminated by chikungunya”, so that “now we have each day between 30 and 35 folks absent at work”, deplores the general manager of ARS to France Info. Health authorities have authorized three clinics to open medicine beds to try to reduce pressure.

A vaccination campaign launched Monday, April 7, 2025

This Monday, April 7, a targeted vaccination campaign for comorbidity or over 65 years old starts on the island on Monday 7 April. So 40,000 doses of vaccine are being distributed to pharmacies. “It could seem inadequate, however there are 50,000 different doses on order which is able to arrive by the tip of April,” said the Director General of ARS.

On his account X, Emmanuel Macron sent a message of solidarity to the Reunional population, adding that for this campaign “the over 65s presenting power illnesses will have the ability to be vaccinated without spending a dime”.

The IXCHIQ vaccine, from the Franco-Austrichian Valneva pharmaceutical group, launched on the European market in 2024, is the one one out there thus far. Reunion is a territory strongly marked by the reminiscence of the chikungunya epidemic in 2005 and 2006. 260,000 folks had been then affected by the virus – a 3rd of the inhabitants – and greater than 200 folks had misplaced their lives. In Mayotte, the epidemic is progressing little by little. Twelve circumstances had been recorded, none having required hospitalization, in keeping with the native ARS.