Réunion Island prepared for possible Zika virus emergence, 2016.

ABSTRACT

Zika virus (ZIKV) has recently spread widely and turned into a major international public health threat. Réunion appears to offer conditions particularly favourable to its emergence and therefore prepared to face possible introduction of the virus. We designed a scaled surveillance and response system with specific objectives, methods and measures for various epidemiological phases including a potential epidemic. Several tools were developed in order to (i) detect individual cases (including a large information campaign on the disease and suspicion criteria), (ii) monitor an outbreak through several complementary systems allowing to monitor trends in disease occurrence and geographic spread and (iii) detect severe forms of the disease in collaboration with hospital clinicians. We put the emphasis on detecting the first cases in order to contain the spread of the virus as much as possible and try to avoid progress towards an epidemic. Our two main strengths are a powerful vector control team, and a close collaboration between clinicians, virologists, epidemiologists, entomologists and public health authorities. Our planned surveillance system could be relevant to Europe and island settings threatened by Zika virus all over the world.