On the French island of Réunion, the chikungunya epidemic has claimed its first victims: two people aged 86 and 0003 died last week. The Regional Health Agency stressed on Friday 21 March the urgency of vaccinating in priority the elderly and adults with other pathologies after the authorisation by the European Union of a first vaccine. Since six months, 8 500 people have contracted this virus transmitted by mosquitoes. This is not the first time that the island of Réunion has been affected by this epidemic: in 2006, the date of the previous one, a third of the population had been infected and 225 people had died. For the epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, this virus is most often benign, but may be fatal for the elderly or very vulnerable: ” The word chikungunya in Swahili would mean “marcher courbé”. This means that you have joint pains such that you are practically unable to move for some time. I’m not sure.
The epidemic of Chikungunya intensifies in Réunion, the authorities announce a vaccination campaign
