Abstract
From 2005 to 2007, the French overseas department and western Indian Ocean island of Réunion was significantly affected by an epidemic of chikungunya. Chikungunya is a vector-spread disease (by the Aedes mosquito) which leads to painful rheumatic symptoms. This was the first occurrence of chikungunya in the region, and the disease infected almost 30 per cent of the island’s total population of 802,000 inhabitants.
The large numbers in infected cases were, in part, due to the vector’s adaptation to an urban, that is a densely populated and domesticated, environment. For example, the Aedes mosquitoes reproduce in both natural and artificial reservoirs of stagnant water such as flower pots, bottles, plastic food containers, car tyres and other refuse often found close to people’s homes. As there was no known vaccine against the virus, public health policies considered the eradication of mosquito breeding grounds to be the most efficient preventive measure against disease diffusion. As a result, sanitary field agents regularly inspected people’s gardens since the onset of the epidemic. From a local perspective however, such interventions were often considered problematic. Not only did the field agents trespass cultural spatial boundaries regarding housing and living, but they also brought forth memories of how previous vector-borne epidemics such as malaria were addressed by the French public health authorities in the island. This contributed towards the stigmatisation of chikungunya and, in turn, the development of alternative disease aetiologies in Réunion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Vectors are living organisms that can transmit infectious diseases between humans or from animals to humans. Many of these vectors are bloodsucking insects, such as mosquitoes.
- 2.
In Réunion, creole refers to anyone or anything of local Réunionese origin. This is in contrast to, for example, Mauritius where Creole rather functions as an ethnic identity marker for Mauritians who are primarily descendants of African and Malagasy slaves (Eriksen 1998).
- 3.
In April 2010, DRASS underwent an organisational transition and is now known as the Agence de santé de l’Océan Indien (The Health Agency of the Indian Ocean, ARS). ARS is non-governmental, whereas DRASS responded directly to the French prefect. The prefect represents the French national government at a local level. As DRASS was still in operation during both the chikungunya epidemic and my main fieldwork in 2009, I will still refer to DRASS and not ARS throughout this chapter.
- 4.
As of 2010, Réunion had the highest level of unemployment in all of the French departments (over 30 per cent) (Roinsard 2010, 21).
- 5.
This information is from the DRASS preventive campaign pamphlet ‘Adoptons les bons gestes!’/’Embrace the right actions!’.
- 6.
Malaria was eradicated in Réunion in 1979 (Fontenille et al. 2009, 79).
- 7.
For example, malaria originates from the Italian words mala (bad) and aria (air).
References
Archaumbault, J.S. 2016. Taking Love Seriously in Human-plant Relations in Mozambique: Toward an Anthropology of Affective Encounters. Cultural Anthropology 31 (2): 244–271.
Arnold, David. 1991. The Indian Ocean as a Disease Zone, 1500–1950. South Asia 14 (2): 1–21.
Audifax, M.B. 2006. Rapport d’Information Assemblée Nationale, no. 3242, Juillet 2006, Déposé par la Commission des Affaires Culturelles, Familiales et Sociales sur l’Épidémie à Virus Chikungunya à la Réunion et à Mayotte. Unpublished Report.
Bonn, D. 2006. How Did Chikungunya Reach the Indian Ocean? The Lancet Infectious Diseases 6 (9): 543.
Castro, A., Y. Khawja, and J. Johnston. 2010. Social Inequalities and Dengue Transmission in Latin America. In Plagues and Epidemics: Infected Spaces Past and Present, ed. D.A. Herring and A.C. Swedlund, 231–251. Oxford: Berg.
Conan, M. 1999. From Vernacular Gardens to a Social Anthropology of Gardening. In Perspectives on Garden Histories, ed. Michel Conan, 181–205. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Washington, D.C.
Emerson, R.M., R.I. Fretz, and L.L. Shaw. 1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Eriksen, T.H. 1998. Common Denominators: Ethnicity, Nation-building and Compromise in Mauritius. Oxford: Berg.
Finch-Boyer, H.C. 2010. Governing Rights in la Réunion: Social Legislation, Landholding, Housing and the Making of France in the Indian Ocean, 1946–2009. PhD dissertation, University of Michigan.
———. 2013. “The Idea of the Nation was Superior to Race”: Transforming Racial Contours and Social Attitudes and Decolonizing the French Empire from la Réunion, 1946–1973. French Histories Studies 36 (1): 109–141.
Fontenille, D., C. Lagneau, S. Lecollinet, R. Lefait-Robin, M. Setbon, B. Tirel, and A. Yebakima. 2009. La Lutte Anti Vectorielle en France/Disease Vector Control in France. Marseille: IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement) Éditions.
Gaüzère, B.A., and P. Aubry. 2006. Le Chik, le Choc, le Chèque: L’Épidémie de Chikungunya à la Réunion 2005–2006 en questions. Sainte Marie: Azalées Éditions.
Goffman, E. 1992 [1959]. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Oslo: Pax Forlag.
Greene, J., M.T. Basilico, H. Kim, and P. Farmer. 2013. Colonial Medicine and Its Legacies. In Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, ed. P. Farmer, J.Y. Kim, A. Kleinman, and M. Basilico, 33–74. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hasna, M.K. 2003. Anthropology of the Gardens and Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia. Unedited paper submitted to the X11 World Forestry Congress, Quebec City.
Herring, D.A., and A.C. Swedlund. 2010. Plagues and Epidemics in Anthropological Perspective. In Plagues and Epidemics: Infected Spaces Past and Present, ed. D.A. Herring and A.C. Swedlund, 1–21. Oxford: Berg.
Jansen, K.A. 2012. The Printed Press’s Representations of the 2005–2007 Chikungunya Epidemic in Réunion: Political Polemics and (Post)colonial Disease. Journal of African Media Studies 4 (2): 227–242.
———. 2013. The 2005–2007 Chikungunya Epidemic in Réunion: Ambiguous Etiologies, Memories and Meaning-making. Medical Anthropology 32 (2): 174–189.
———. 2016. Tropical Disease and the Making of France in Réunion. In Histories of Medicine and Healing in the Indian Ocean World, Volume Two: The Modern Period, ed. A. Winterbottom and F. Tesfaye, 147–171. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jenkins, V.S. 1994. The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession. Washington: Smithsonian Books.
Kirksey, S.E., and S. Helmreich. 2010. The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography. Cultural Anthropology 25 (4): 545–576.
Leyral, P. 2006. Les Autorités Sanitaires de l’Île le Reconnaissent Officiellement: un Enfant est Mort Directement du Chikungunya. Le Journal de l’île de la Réunion (February): 14.
Malinowski, B. 1935. Coral Gardens and Their Magic. New York: American Books.
Nading, A.M. 2014. Mosquito Trails: Ecology, Health and the Politics of Entanglement. Oakland: University of California Press.
Njenga, M.K., L. Nderitu, J.P. Ledermann, A. Ndirangu, C.H.L. Kelly, R. Sang, K. Sergon, R. Breiman, and A.M. Powers. 2008. Tracking Epidemic Chikungunya Virus into the Indian Ocean from East Africa. Journal of General Virology 89 (11): 2754–2760.
P. D. 2006. Nouveau Plan de Lutte Contre l’Épidémie de Chikungunya: l’Armée se Mobilise. Le Quotidien de l’île de la Réunion et de l’Océan Indien 21 (January): 6.
Payrard, M. 2006. Dispositif de Lutte Anti-vectorielle: les Militaires s’en Vont, les Moustiques Restent. Le Journal de l’île de la Réunion 23 May: 14.
———. 2007. Annonce Officielle du Ministre de la Santé: Épidémie de Chikungunya est Terminée. Le Journal de l’île de la Réunion 20 April.
Pialoux, G., B.A. Gaüzère, S. Jauréguiberry, and M. Strobel. 2007. Chikungunya, an Epidemic Arbovirus. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 7: 319–327.
Raffles, H. 2010. Insectopedia. New York: Pantheon Books.
Rallu, J.-L. 2009. Populations et Sociétés: Populations et Développement dans l’Outre-mer de l’Union Européenne. Bulletin mensuel d’information de l’Institut national d’études démographiques 456: 1–4.
Raude, J., and M. Setbon. 2009. The Role of Environmental and Individual Factors in the Social Epidemiology of Chikungunya Disease on Mayotte Island. Health & Place 15: 689–699.
Renault, P., D. Sissoko, M. Ledrans, V. Pierre, and G. Brücker. 2008. L’Épidémie de Chikungunya à la Réunion et à Mayotte, France, 2005–2006: le Contexte et les Questions de Surveillance et d’Évaluation posées. Bulletin épidémiologique hebdomaire 38: 39–40.
Roinsard, N. 2010. Travailler, Chômer, s’Entraider. Discontinuité du Travail et Organisation Sociale à La Réunion. In Chroniques d’une Autre France: La Réunion. Genres de Vie et Intimités Creoles, ed. D. Le Gall and N. Roinsard, 21–43. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Rosenberg, C.E. 1992. Explaining Epidemics and Other Studies in the History of Medicine. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Taglioni, F., and J.S. Dehecq. 2009. L’Environnement Socio-spatial comme Facteur d’Émergence des Maladies Infectieuses: le Chikungunya dans l’Océan Indien. EchoGéo 9: 1–42.
Vaxelaire, D. 2009. Le Grand Livre de l’Histoire de la Réunion. 1. Des Origines à 1848 et 2. De 1848 à l’an 2000. Chevagny sur Guye: Collection le grand livre, Orphie.
Vergès, F. 1999. Monsters and Revolutionaries: Colonial Family Romance and Métissage. Durham: Duke University Press.
Watin, M. 2008. Polémique, Rumeur et Tension: Aspects de la “Crise” du Chikungunya dans l’Espace Public Médiatique Réunionnais. In Épidémie et pharmacopée traditionnelle dans l’histoire des îles de l’Océan Indien, ed. S. Fuma and J. Chan, 241–252. St Denis: Université de la Réunion.
———. 2010. La Médiatisation de l’Épidémie de Chikungunya à Maurice et à La Réunion (2005–2006). In La santé dans l’Espace Public, ed. H. Romeyer, 133–149. Rennes: Presses de l’EHESP.
Weinstein, P., and S. Ravi. 2008. The Failure of Colonial “Distancing”: Changing Representations of the 2005–06 Chikungunya epidemic in Réunion, France. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 29: 221–235.
———. 2009. Print Media Representations of an Unusual Health Event: Chikungunya Virus, Risk and Identity on Réunion Island. Transforming Cultures Ejournal 4 (2): 144–165.
Winterbottom, A., and F. Tesfaye. 2016. Introduction. In Histories of Medicine and Healing in the Indian Ocean World, Volume One: The Medieval and Modern Early Period, ed. Anna Winterbottom and Facile Tesfaye, 1–35. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wolff, É. 1991. Quartiers de vie: Approche Ethnologique des Populations Défavorisées de l’Île de la Réunion. Paris: Méridiens Klincksieck.
Zettor, C.M. 2010. Étude Historique de l’Évolution de Pratiques de Lutte Anti-vectorielle à la Réunion. St Pierre, Réunion: Unpublished internal document, Agence de santé del’Océan Indien (The Health Agency of the Indian Ocean, ARS).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jansen, K.A. (2020). Challenging Chikungunya: Resistance to Public Health Measures and Aetiology During the 2005–2007 Epidemic in Réunion. In: Campbell, G., Knoll, EM. (eds) Disease Dispersion and Impact in the Indian Ocean World. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36264-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36264-5_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36263-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36264-5
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)