Mosquito virus kills 78 in a month - Indian ocean fears epidemic

[PhilipShore]

News-Medical.net
Disease/Infection News
Mosquito virus kills 78 in a month - Indian ocean fears epidemic
6-Mar-2006

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=16352

While the rest of the world panics about bird flu, the islands of Mauritius, Réunion and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean are in the grip of a mosquito-borne epidemic that has infected thousands and killed at least 78 in a month.

Madagascar has recorded the first cases of the mosquito-borne disease Chikungunya, which has caused havoc and is suspected in 93 deaths on nearby Reunion Island.

Reunion is about 500 miles (800km) east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and the presence of the infection on Madagascar puts 18 million inhabitants at risk.

The French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, has declared a state of emergency on Réunion, where 157,000 people, one in five of the population, have been affected by the disease.