Published on
Updated
Reading 1 min.
Covars, the committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks, warns of an increase in cases of dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya, due to the proliferation of the tiger mosquito on French territory. The threat of an epidemic outbreak would be one of the consequences of global warming.
We will now have to get used to it: the tiger mosquitoes will be more and more numerous on the territory. This is at least what Covars believes, which warns, in an opinion issued this Wednesday, April 5, of the risk of an increase in the transmission of viral diseases on the metropolitan territory.
“An inevitable risk”
In its opinion, the Covars (formerly the Scientific Council) indicates that France could experience a “outbreak“.
In 2023 alone, six new departments were placed on red alert, which represents a “spectacular progress” of the tiger mosquito on the territory.
“We are not in the case of a disaster scenario”, warns immunologist Brigitte Autran, president of Covars. “But the risk is unavoidable due to the proliferation of tiger mosquitoes. But it can also be avoided by better organization of those involved in the fight against these mosquitoes, the progress of research and the education of the populations with whom it is advisable to communicate better”.
The rise in temperature in question
If in 2023, 71% of French territory was colonized by the tiger mosquito, it is largely due to global warming.
“Rise in cases is inevitable due to increased travel and climate change“, noted Didier Fontenille, entomologist, one of the authors of the report, during a press briefing.
The “global drop in immunity” would also play a role.
Faced with this outbreak, the experts are unanimous: the tiger mosquito and the diseases associated with it cannot be stopped.
“The risk increases and you can’t work miracles“, regrets the virologist Xavier de Lamballerie. “We will not eradicate the tiger mosquito in the decades to come“, he warns.
An observation shared by Bertrand Pasquet, president of the ChroniLyme Association.
“Global warming will cause this major inconvenience and many others. All these diseases – zoonoses, arbovorises – we will have to live with. However, our immune system is not yet adapted to all this. This phenomenon is therefore particularly worrying, especially since we did not know about these diseases in the past. Our civilization will have to evolve“, concludes the expert.
Slide: Discover the 10 natural remedies against mosquitoes