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The top of the hospital service on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on Sunday known as for medical reinforcements to deal with an epidemic of the mosquito-borne chikungunya illness.
“We’re actually stretched to our limits,” Lionel Calenge instructed the RMC radio station.
“Epidemiologists predicted the epidemic peak would hit in mid-April, and right here we’re.”
His attraction went out a day earlier than French President Emmanuel Macron was to embark on a five-day tour of Indian Ocean territories, together with a cease in Reunion on Tuesday.
Because the begin of the yr, chikungunya has already killed six folks on the island, and round one in 9 folks within the inhabitants of almost 900,000 is believed to be affected.
Though France’s public well being service stated the epidemic seemed to be easing in early April, Calenge stated, “Daily, for a number of weeks now, we now have been getting between 30 and 40 sufferers with ‘chik’ in our two emergency wards.”
The 4 hospitals underneath his cost have inadequate beds, with 581 folks hospitalized with the illness because the begin of 2025, together with 46 newborns, whereas 540 medical workers have been off work since early March as a result of they contracted chikungunya, he stated.
He stated that his service had to this point obtained three back-up docs, however he was calling for six extra.
The hospital service has postpone some 300 beforehand scheduled operations and known as personnel again from depart to deal with the outbreak, Calenge stated.
© 2025 AFP
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Reunion hospital boss urges reinforcements amid chikungunya outbreak (2025, April 20)
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