Just over two months before the Olympic and Paralympic Games, mainland France has already broken the record for cases of dengue contamination. Every year, France experiences periods of peak cases of dengue fever in mainland France. But in 2024, the number of cases recorded since January has already reached levels never seen in recent years.
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It’s about a mild viral illness but which can still develop into a serious form and cause bleeding. Between January and April 2024, more than 2,000 imported cases of dengue were recorded in hexagonal France compared to 128 on average over the same period, the previous five years. These cases were mainly recorded in people returning from trips to the Antilles.
Even before the Paris Olympic Games, which will encourage the mixing of populations in the middle of the tiger mosquito season, the 2023 record for imported dengue cases was beaten in just four months. And from May 1 to 14, when diseases linked to the period of activity of mosquito vectors began to be the subject of “reinforced surveillance”, 98 other cases of imported dengue fever were recorded in mainland France.
During the first four months of 2024, 82% of cases imported into mainland France were contracted in Martinique or Guadeloupe and 5% in Guyana, “ departments where there is a significant epidemic », noted Public Health France on Wednesday evening. The imported cases concern people who have traveled to regions of the world where this virus transmitted by a tiger mosquito bite is endemic.
No cases of indigenous transmission
The tiger mosquito is now present in almost the entire French territory. But for the moment, no cases of autochthonous transmission, that is to say among people who have not traveled, have been detected. In 2023, France had recorded around fifty indigenous cases of dengue after a record of 66 in 2022.
About a month ago, health authorities already warned of an outbreak of contamination in the Americas and the Caribbean, calling on populations to be extra vigilant, particularly in the run-up to the Olympic Games. It must be said that Paris 2024 will take place at the height of the tiger mosquito’s activity. In France, this dengue vector is under increased surveillance between May and November.
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