According to WHO, the disease has already been detected in 119 countries, putting 5.6 billion people at risk. According to the representative of the organization, Diana Rojas Alvarez, it is necessary to sound the alarm today so that countries can prepare in advance.

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral infection common in tropical and subtropical regions. The disease causes high fever and severe joint pain, which in many patients can last from several weeks to months. Severe currents are rare, but they are especially common in elderly or seriously ill people.

The death rate is less than one percent, but for millions of cases, that one percent could mean thousands of deaths, the WHO warns.

In 2004 and 2005, a major epidemic had already occurred in the island States of the Indian Ocean, which claimed the lives of about half a million people. Today, the WHO is observing the same pattern: the virus is spreading in the Indian Ocean, as well as in Madagascar, Somalia and Kenya, as well as in South Asia.

Imported cases related to the outbreak on islands in the Indian Ocean have also been reported in Europe. As similar transmission patterns have already been observed during the outbreak that began in 2004, WHO urges that measures be taken to prevent a repeat of this story.

Most recently, the Robert Koch Institute reported a case of chikungunya in France near the Franco-German border, where a person apparently contracted it directly from the bite of an infected mosquito. He did not bring the disease with him from the trip, the newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported.