Health | Bouches-du-Rhône: two cases of dengue fever detected, mosquito control carried out in Gardanne

2023-08-04 09:15:10

They are now cured. Two indigenous cases of dengue have been reported in Gardanne in the Bouches-du-Rhône, the Paca Regional Health Agency (ARS Paca) announced in a press release this Friday morning. “These are the first autochthonous dengue cases identified this year in the region since the start of seasonal surveillance“, specifies the ARS.

To prevent possible spread, a “mosquito control was carried out by the Interdepartmental Agreement for Mosquito Control of the Mediterranean Coast (EID-Med) within a radius of 200 meters in the district where the cases reside“. The challenge is to eliminate adult mosquitoes that could be infected as quickly as possible to avoid chain contamination. The ARS specifies that the interest is also to “remove breeding sites“.

What is an “indigenous case”?

These are the first autochthonous cases of dengue fever identified in the region this year. The ARS states that “we speak of an autochthonous case when a person has contracted the disease on national territory and has not traveled to a contaminated area in the 15 days preceding the onset of symptoms“.

Dengue “spread from person to person through the bite of a mosquito infected with the dengue virus“.

A fortnight ago, a discreet mosquito control which had caused misunderstanding in Gardanne

On July 17 at 12:45 p.m., the City of Gardanne informs, only on social networks, that a “targeted mosquito control operation against the tiger mosquito” will take place the next day, between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m., in the Collevieille district. The publication had aroused a rain of 90 reactions.

“And when are the other districts due?“asked Therese;Should we be warned, and what product will be sprayed? And when ? I do not agree“, worried Myriam.

It must be said that the communication is rather vague and evasive. “It is not the municipality that decides, but the ARS. We just communicatesays the mayor’s office. We can simply raise complaints.“After verification, this operation was intended solely to prevent the start of an epidemic, following the declaration of a case of dengue imported from abroad in the district concerned, and not to fight against mosquitoes as a nuisance. . “In the event of declaration of a case of dengue, chikungunya or zika, we systematically carry out an investigation in the patientexplains Grégory L’Ambert, medical entomologist at EID-Méditerranée, the public operator responsible for mosquito control. If the presence of tiger mosquitoes, likely to have bitten the person and to be in turn carriers of the virus, is observed, a mosquito control operation is launched in order to break the chain of transmission as quickly as possible..”