Dengue outbreaks: a constant risk for Reunion Island. Results from a seroprevalence study among blood donors.

BACKGROUND: Immunity against dengue virus (DENV) on Reunion Island could play an important role in the risk of dengue outbreaks but is rather unknown. A study was performed to estimate seroprevalence of antibodies against DENV among blood donors. METHODS: An age- and sex-stratified sample of 1825 sera was randomly selected. RESULTS: Overall seroprevalence was 3.1% (95% CI: 2.2-3.9%); seroprevalence increased with age and was much higher in women than in men. CONCLUSION: The low level of herd immunity is consistent with the absence of an endemic circulation of DENV, and makes it probable that Reunion Island will face future outbreaks.

Human leptospirosis on Reunion Island: past and current burden.

Since 1953, leptospirosis has been recognized as a public health problem on Reunion Island. In 2004, was implemented a specific surveillance system that included systematic reporting and the realization of environmental investigations around hospitalized cases. Here, we present the synthesis of historical data and the assessment of 9 years of leptospirosis surveillance. From 2004 to 2012, 414 hospitalized cases were reported. Cases of leptospirosis occurred mostly during the rainy season from December to May. Approximately 41% of infections occurred at home, 12% of infections occurred during aquatic leisure and 5% of cases were linked to professional activities. Furthermore, for 41% of cases, the place of infection could not be determined due to the accumulation of residential and non-residential exposure. Most of the cases of leptospirosis were linked to rural areas or traditional, rural occupations. We did not observe a shift to recreational leptospirosis as described in some developed countries. According to the new surveillance system, the number of reported cases has regularly increased since 2004. This situation is in part due to the improvement of the system in the first years but also to a real increase in the number of detected cases due to the introduction of molecular methods and to increased biological investigation into the Dengue-like syndrome by medical practitioners on the island since the Chikungunya crisis in 2006. This increase is probably due to surveillance and diagnosis biases but need to be carefully monitored. Nevertheless, the possibility of an outbreak is always present due to climatic events, such as after the "hyacinth" hurricane in 1980.