Lionel Calenge, director general of Réunion Island's hospital center, said Sunday that he had requested medical reinforcements to deal with the peak of the chikungunya epidemic, which has already caused six deaths on the island.
"The epidemic peak had been predicted by epidemiologists for mid-April. We are there," Lionel Calenge said on RMC, adding that the CHU "is on the front line in this crisis situation."
"Every day for several weeks, we have been receiving between 30 and 40 patients with 'chik' in our two emergency departments," which is "really putting a lot of pressure on our capacity," warns the director.
He details: "Insufficient number of beds", "occupancy rate in medicine and surgery of 95%", "581 patients hospitalized for +chik+ since the beginning of the year, with 127 patients in pediatrics, 46 in neonatology and neonatal intensive care".
To cope with an "increase in emergency activity of 12% over the last month", he indicates that he has had "the reinforcement of three doctors from the health reserve".
"We have also requested six additional doctors at the national level," he adds.
At the beginning of April, the CHU had triggered the white plan, a mechanism which allows certain operations to be cancelled or staff on leave to be recalled to hospitals, in the face of a significant increase in emergency activity linked to the treatment of patients with chikungunya.
This white plan allowed for "the opening of 14 additional medical beds," as well as the transformation of "weekday hospitals into post-emergency medicine" and the deprogramming of 300 operations, the manager explains.
"We recruited paramedics, nurses, and other paramedical staff, but we had more difficulty recruiting doctors," he says.
President Emmanuel Macron will travel to the Indian Ocean for a five-day tour starting Monday, which includes stops in Réunion and Mayotte.
Health authorities have recorded six chikungunya-related deaths in Réunion since the beginning of the year and are observing the beginning of a decline in the epidemic on the island, where more than 100,000 people may have been infected.
English 
French