Health authorities announced this Saturday, April 26, withdraw people 65 years or older from Chikungunya campaign with the Ixchiq vaccine in Mayotte and the meeting after three “serious adverse events”, including a death.
“Vaccination remains open for people aged 18 to 64 with comorbidities,” said the Ministry of Health in a statement, while the Chikungunya epidemic caused the death of nine at the meeting at this stage.
The emergency seizure by the Government, the high authority for health had a lawyer in March to vaccinate in priority those over 65, adults with comorbidities (high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc.) and anti -man -hits on this French island of the Indian Ocean. The Government had followed these recommendations for the beginning of the campaign on April 7.
The decision of the health authorities occurs after they were informed on April 23, two “serious undesirable events”, including a death, then a third on April 25.
• Varied symptoms
The three “undesirable confirmed events” occurred at the meeting “after a vaccination against Chikungunya with the Valneva Ixchiq vaccine, in people over 80 years of age with comorbidities,” specifies the Ministry of Health on its site.
“Two people have presented symptoms similar to those in a serious way of Chikungunya a few days after vaccination, one of whom died. The third came out of hospitalization,” the ministry added.
This disease is manifested by fever, joint and muscular pain, headache or eruption. “In some cases, serious neurological forms may occur, particularly meningencephalitis and peripheral nerves,” which can lead to the patient’s death, according to the Pasteur Institute.
• An infectious agent involved
These undesirable events can be explained by the nature of the Ixchiq vaccine, explains Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases of Henri Mondor Hospital, at BFMTV.com. This chikungunya vaccine is a attenuated living vaccine.
These vaccines, such as BCG or Ror, are “formed by attenuated infectious agents (viruses, bacteria)” and, therefore, create “a minimum infection,” according to the official vaccination information service of the website. “They induce immune protection near the one that follows a natural infection: fast and generally durable,” he adds. But, since they contain a living infectious agent, they are contraindicated in immunocompromised people.
And beyond these people, “there are more undesirable events for living vaccines attenuated in older people in general, as we have seen with the yellow fever vaccine, for example,” Jean-Daniel Lelièvre develops. Therefore, the health authorities seek, for these people, to establish a balance between the risks led by the vaccine and the benefits that they can contribute to these vulnerable populations against diseases such as Chikungunya.
For the Ixchiq vaccine, “we had many data in the youngest, but among those over 65, there were enough data, around 400 people. This makes it possible to eliminate the rare adverse effects, but not the rare ones,” added the immunologist, a member of the Technical Vaccines Commission. This vaccine received the European marketing authorization (MA) on June 28, 2024 and began to be administered at the meeting in April.
“And we must not forget that very old subjects often have comorbidities: diabetes, heart failure …”, underlines Jean-Daniel Lelièvre. This makes people more at risk against Chikungunya, but also, in the case of “a vivid attenuated vaccine, which gives a low noise infection” this “can be sufficient in people who are already very fragile to decompose a pre -existing precarious state.” However, all these assumptions must be validated after the investigation of the health authorities.
• Vaccination always encouraged for those under 65 years
The authorities, on the other hand, promote vaccination for those children under 65 years of age. “If you have renal failure, heart, respiratory failure, diabetes, obesity, it is recommended between 18 and 65, it is recommended when vaccinated,” said Minister of Health, Yannick Neuder, in France 3 this Sunday. And in the case of undesirable effects “particularly intense” after vaccination, the Ministry recommends quickly contacting a doctor.
When asked on Saturday at meeting 1, the Ars chief emphasized that the cessation of the vaccination campaign (for children from 18 to 64 years with comorbidities) was “not expected”, the vaccine that can “lead to collective immunity.” The “serious undesirable events” identified in the meeting refer to people over 80, and for those under 65, “there are more data” in this vaccine, says Jean-Daniel Lelièvre.
Until then, the recommendations directed those over 65 “because we did not have enough doses, so we have addressed the most likely way of making a severe form of Chikungunya (hospitalization, decompensation of pre-existing diseases) …”, explains Jean-Daniel Lelièvre.
“Which does not mean that younger, we cannot make severe ways,”. The youngest run the risk of experiencing repercussions of this long -term disease, with persistent joint pain. They can occur in 30 to 40% of patients and last several months or even years in a few patients, according to Public Health France.
• Authorities deny “any life size test”
If you consider that “wise” has stopped the campaign for those over 65, Jean-Daniel Lelièvre emphasizes that “science is never white or black.” “When we recommend this vaccine, we did it because the disease was increasing at the meeting, which there were deaths, several hundred hospitalizations … with undesirable events today, we have a little problem to perceive the risk balance balance, so we are in favor of avoiding the risk for people,” develops the member of the Ha Technical Commission. Particularly in the current context, where the epidemic “stabilizes”, even if it remains at “a high level”, according to the last public health bulletin France.
But “you have to be very clear”: “It was not a life size test at the meeting,” he assures the immunologist. The general director of Health, Dr. Grégory Emery, estimated it on Sunday that the campaign had not launched too fast, “all stages” of control had been “respected.”
But the argument does not convince everyone on the island where more than 885,000 people live. “I have the feeling that we are taken by the guinea pigs, this case will further reduce the credibility of the health authorities in the eyes of the population,” said Henri, 69, retired in Saint-Benoît (east of the meeting) to the AFP.
Jean-Daniel Lelièvre also wants to remember that “it is difficult to warn about Chikungunya, transmitted by the mosquitoes of the tigers that bite when you do not listen to them.” At the moment, this vaccine is the only one available. According to Ars estimates, almost 120,000 people have been contaminated by the virus since the beginning of the year. Nine deaths of people over 70 years of age who carry comorbidities were registered by Public Health France. Nine other deaths are being investigated, including those of a baby.
Source: BFM TV
