Following the major epidemic of 2005–2006, which affected 38% of the population of Réunion Island, circulation of CHIKV remained undetected for several years. In 2024, CHIKV re-emerged and is currently causing a new outbreak on the island.
Étienne Frumence and Marie-Christine Jaffar-Bandjee, from the University Hospital Center of Réunion Island – designated as an Associate National Reference Center for Arboviruses and Respiratory Viruses for the period 2023–2027 – have published the full coding sequence of the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), responsible for the re-emergence of the disease on Réunion since August 2024. This sequence, obtained from one of the first confirmed cases in 2024, is now available in the GenBank database under accession number PV035814.
Refer to this document to learn more about sequence PV035814.
Furthermore, the European Virus Archive (EVA) will soon make available the CHIKV strain isolated in 2025. This initiative is part of the EVA-GLOBAL project, which aims to collect, amplify, characterize, standardize, authenticate, and distribute viruses and related products for the global scientific community. The collections from participating biobanks are centralized in an online catalog.