Chikungunya infection in Alsace-near the German border

A person in France has been infected with the Chikungunya virus just a few kilometers from the German border. As announced by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the infection, which was particularly transferred by the Asian tiger mosquito, was demonstrated by a person in Alsace who was only south of Strasbourg in the municipalities of Lipsheim and Fegersheim-about six to seven kilometers from the German border. There he apparently infected himself by the stitch of a mosquito.

In the past few weeks, six other local domestic chikungunya cases had already been discovered in France, most of them near the Mediterranean coast. The virus triggers the chikungunya fever, which is associated with flu-typical symptoms such as high fever, headache and body pain. Most infected people relax completely, often after a week. The virus for chronically ill, pregnant women and infants is more dangerous. However, deaths are extremely rare.

For a long time there was no vaccine against Chikungunya. The IXCHIQ vaccine was approved in Germany last year, followed by Vimkunya vaccine in February 2025. Due to isolated reports on serious side effects in older people, Ixchiq is currently being checked by the European drug agency.

In France as well as in Germany, many infected travelers from countries are currently coming back with large chikungunya eruptions, especially from Mauritius and the French overseas area La Réunion, reported the Robert Koch Institute in his “epidemiological bulletin”. According to RKI, 75 Chikungunya cases have been registered in Germany from April to June. They are apparently without exception traveling and therefore in particular affected returnees from Mauritius, La Réunion and Sri Lanka.

A spatial spread of Chikungunya based on the Strasbourg case is possible, but not likely, it said. The authorities took measures to find further cases and to combat the mosquitoes in the vicinity of the identified cases. The case shows, however, that on the German side of the Rhine and possibly in other regions of Germany, due to the presence of tiger mosquitoes and high temperatures, the conditions for a local transmission of the Chikungunya virus are also given.

Tiger mosquitoes now occur in large parts of France to the German border. In Germany, the mosquitoes in Baden-Württemberg and in the Rhine-Main area of ​​Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate are widespread, but also selectively in Bavaria, Thuringia, Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia, explained the Robert Koch Institute.