2023-05-01 16:40:16
Under enhanced surveillance in France from May 1, the tiger mosquito is responsible for many nuisances, but also for serious illnesses. It was in the Alpes-Maritimes that he arrived in 2004.
Legs and striped body, aggressive temperament in the middle of the day, silent flight, no doubt, the mosquito with which you are fighting is indeed a tiger mosquito.
The insect, which can carry and transmit the virus of the dengueof chikungunya or Zikais today present in 71 metropolitan departments according to the Ministry of Health. So much so that in 2022, in addition to imported cases of disease, there were 65 autochthonous cases of dengue fever, all in the South-East of France. A single outbreak, located in Saint-Jeannet (Alpes-Maritimes) caused 34 cases between the beginning of August and the end of September 2022.
The installation in metropolitan France of theAedes albopictusnative to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, seems, with hindsight, inevitable.
If we often invoke global warming to explain its expansion, that is not the only reason. The tiger mosquito also has a very strong ability to adapt to new environments.less humid, more temperate than its original home.
Thus, since the end of the 1970s, theAedes albopictus set out to conquer the planet: America, Africa, Europe.
Observed for the first time in Italy, in Genoa, in a batch of imported used tyres, it only had to jump a mile to find itself in the Alpes-Maritimes where its presence was officially recorded in 2004.
However, it was only two years later, in March 2006, that we began to worry about the health consequences of its presence. We fear in particular an epidemic of chikungunya like what is happening at the same time on the island of Reunion. Official message in the Alpes-Maritimes: “do not give in to psychosis”. Evidenced by this report of March 10, 2006 on France 3 Côte d’Azur:
video duration: 00h01mn12s
In March 2006, we began to wonder about the health risk linked to the presence of tiger mosquitoes in the Alpes-Maritimes since 2004. Report by Ariane Masseglia.
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©France 3 French Riviera
In 10 years, it had adapted enough to be installed in 20 departments of the South-East, and its expansion has only accelerated since then.
This year from May 1st, and until November 30th, i.e. during its main period of activity, the health authorities therefore place the tiger mosquito under “reinforced surveillance” throughout France.
Concretely, its presence and its expansion will be scrutinized, by involving the population. A site dedicated to reporting the tiger mosquito has been set up. On the Côte d’Azur in any case, its observation will in no way be a surprise…
Then, awareness messages will multiply. Better knowing the behavior of the mosquito is better knowing how to lead the fight.
Finally, the information collected on its areas of presence will allow the authorities, if necessary, to triggerpossible mosquito control operations.
Against the tiger mosquito, the best protection is prevention.
Coordinated by the PACA Regional Health Agency (ARS), this fight first of all requires the vigilance of each of us: it is a question of destroying all the breeding places of the larvae. According to the ARS, “80 of the gîtes are in our gardens or our terraces”.
It is therefore a question of methodically eradicating all the stagnant water in the cups, basins or… old tires, in which the mosquito lays its eggs.
Without habitat, the larvae will not be able to develop into biting adults. If it is far too late to eradicate the tiger mosquito from the region, it is still possible to limit its population and its nuisances.
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