Page "Réunion" Paragraph 13

In 2005 and 2006, Réunion was hit by a crippling epidemic of chikungunya, a disease spread by mosquitoes.

According to the BBC News, 255, 000 people on Réunion had contracted the disease as of 26 April 2006.

Madagascar had also been hit by this disease during the same year.

A few cases also appeared in mainland France through airline travel.

Then French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin sent an emergency aid package worth 36 million Euro ($ 57. 6M U. S. dollars ) and deployed approximately five hundred French troops in an effort to eradicate mosquitoes.