Following the confirmation on January 22 of the first case of smallpox B in Réunion in a person returning from Madagascar, health authorities are launching a preventive vaccination campaign this Monday. The diagnosed patient was immediately isolated, and the Regional Health Agency now aims to "limit the risk of introduction and transmission of the virus" on the island.
The free vaccination targets the most at-risk groups: primarily people from or traveling to Madagascar, where the virus is circulating widely (245 confirmed cases, more than 300 suspected cases). Also included are men who have sex with men, sex workers, healthcare professionals, and immunocompromised individuals traveling to a high-risk area.
Smallpox B primarily causes high fever and skin lesions. Identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it remained largely confined to a few African countries for a long time, which still account for 78% of global cases. The situation is improving, however: the African Union's health agency announced in January that Mpox was no longer "a public health emergency", while noting that the disease has not disappeared and that more than five million doses have been deployed in sixteen countries on the continent.
 Sophie de Duiéry
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09/02/2026 | 
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