a first vaccine against chikungunya available in France, who should be vaccinated?

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Valvena France announced on Wednesday November 20, 2024 the availability in France of the first vaccine against chikungunya. IXCHIQ is a live attenuated vaccine, that is to say it is made up of viruses, modified so that it loses its infectious power, while retaining its capacity to induce protection in the vaccinated person.

Chikungunya, which means “who walks bent forward” in Makondé (a southern African language), is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes albopictus – the tiger mosquito – and Aedes aegypti. The first species is present in mainland France, the second in the Antilles, Guyana, French Polynesia and New Caledonia, specifies the Pasteur Institute.

Disabling and sometimes chronic symptoms

Rarely fatal, chikungunya nevertheless causes joint damage, sometimes very disabling. They affect the wrists, fingers, ankles, feet, knees, sometimes the hips and shoulders.

Associated with this are fever, severe muscle pain, rash, and inflammation of the cervical lymph nodes.

Severe forms are neurological; meningoencephalitis and peripheral nerve damage.

The chronic form of the disease, which can persist for months or even years, affects 43% of symptomatic people (around 75% of infected people).

High risk of an epidemic in mainland France

Chikungunya is a tropical disease, clearly increasing throughout the world, America, Africa, southeast Asia, but also in Europe. According to ANSES, the probability of the appearance of an epidemic of dengue, Zika or chikungunya within 5 years, in France, is judged quite “high”.

The vaccine received European marketing authorization in July 2024, approved in 2023 in the United States and more recently in Canada.

It is indicated in adults only and must be administered in a single dose.

He is contraindicated in immunocompromised people.

The clinical effectiveness of the vaccine was evaluated in a study whose results were published in The Lancet : 98.9% of participants presented virus-neutralizing antibodies, 28 days after vaccination. They were 96.3% 6 months later.

According to an OpinionWay survey conducted for Valvena France, 56% of French people said they were ready to get vaccinated if vaccination against chikungunya was possible.

The vaccine is not reimbursed by Health Insurance and, to date, no opinion has been issued by the High Health Authority concerning it.

With Destination Health

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