In Reunion Island, patients fear being confronted with “long chikungunya”

"I feel like the pain will always be there." For Anne Bastien, 49, a physical education teacher in Saint-Denis (Réunion Island), chikungunya is "still there." More than three months after being infected with the mosquito-borne virus, she has the worrying feeling that her body "will never return to its original state."

Despite medication and gentler remedies, she still experiences joint pain in her hands and feet, after going through days where it was "impossible for her to stand." Every morning, she now has to go through a "getting-up" phase. "It's killing me. It's still disabling, and yet I'm not a softie," says the teacher, also describing "phases of fatigue that affect my morale." "I'm afraid it will turn into chronic pain," says ^Ms. Bastien, who continues to take corticosteroids.

In Réunion, 54,541 biologically confirmed cases and twenty-seven deaths have been recorded since January, according to Public Health France (SPF), while "twenty-six other deaths are currently under investigation regarding the imputability of chikungunya." Some 200,000 people (or 22% of the population) have consulted general practitioners for a syndrome suggestive of chikungunya, estimates SPF, which does not predict the number of people affected . This is why a seroprevalence study will soon be launched in Réunion.

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