The chikungunya season is back on track. The first case of local contamination of the year in France was identified in recent days in Tarn, reported Wednesday July 29 Public Health France. Until then, the other cases recorded were “imported” cases, involving people who had traveled to regions of the world where this virus circulates endemically.
First identified in Tanzania in 1952, chikungunya is transmitted via the tiger mosquito. By biting an infected human, the insect itself becomes a carrier of the virus, then transmits it by biting other people. Currently in France, “80% of departments have conditions conducive to the emergence of the disease”, namely weather that is sufficiently hot and humid to allow eggs to hatch, estimates the Pasteur Institute.
However, it is in Reunion that most cases were concentrated in 2025. Nearly half of the island’s inhabitants, or around 450,000 people, were infected last year, according to an estimate from Public Health France, and around forty related deaths were recorded. An epidemic has also hit Guyana since January. In total, 1,222 cases were confirmed in this department in 2026 but the number of cases could be much higher because tests are not systematically prescribed.
A “rarely fatal” disease
Chikungunya gets its name from the symptoms it causes in affected patients. In the Makonde language, a people of southern Africa, this word means “curved”, evoking the posture adopted by patients because of the intense joint and muscle pain they feel. The infection also causes headache, fever, rash and conjunctivitis. Some patients may also suffer from serious neurological complications.
Most symptoms disappear within a few days, but joint pain can last for a while, especially in older people. “The disease is rarely fatal: most of the patients who die from it also suffer from other illnesses,” specifies the Pasteur Institute.
No treatment exists to treat the virus itself, but doctors can prescribe painkillers and anti-inflammatories to limit symptoms. On the prevention side, as with other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (dengue fever, malaria, Zika), the measures aim to avoid bites. Health authorities recommend in particular the application of skin repellent, wearing long clothing and using a mosquito net.
In June 2024, a first vaccine against chikungunya was authorized in the European Union, Ixchiq. But, last April, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommended using it only for 18-64 year olds. For the most vulnerable – people aged 65 and over and those aged 12-64 with co-morbidities – the second vaccine authorized in France, Vimkunya, is preferred.
