“A chik, it knocks you down”: chikungunya is back, but this time, Reunion is armed

Friday 24th January 2025 08:37 AM

In the waiting room of the Elsan center in Paris, located on Quai de Jemmapes (10th arrondissement), around twenty people are patiently waiting before entering, this Friday morning, one of the boxes of the largest vaccination center in France . A few months before the pilgrimage to Mecca, many came for meningitis, for which the vaccine has become compulsory in Saudi Arabia.

But while the island of Reunion triggered a crisis management system on Monday evening to deal with the start of a chikungunya epidemic, only one traveler leaving for a “risk zone” came that day to get vaccinated against this disease transmitted by the tiger mosquito. In this center where 80,000 people pass through each year, only around ten of them have used the Ixchiq vaccine, available since mid-November in France and “recommended for adults over 18 years of age”.

France