In 2022, with 378 imported cases of dengue fever, 23 of chikungunya and six of Zika, the situation was “exceptional” in metropolitan France, underlines Tuesday July 11 a study by Public Health France, which is concerned about the viability of the device of current monitoring. The Aedes albopictus mosquito, otherwise known as the tiger mosquito and implanted in metropolitan France since 2004, has continued to spread over the territory.
To limit the risk of transmission of the arboviruses that it can propagate (dengue, chikungunya and Zika), monitoring of cases, imported and indigenous, has been in place since 2006, recalls the weekly epidemiological bulletin of SpF. Indigenous cases refer to patients who have not traveled to areas where the virus circulates widely such as the West Indies, but were bitten by an infected mosquito in contact with an infected traveler.
Despite surveillance, the epidemiological situation with regard to dengue in metropolitan France was “exceptional in 2022”, according to Public Health France. Indigenous transmissions have been more intense with a high number of episodes: the number of cases recorded for the year 2022 alone is greater than the total number of cases identified over the period 2010-2021 (66 cases versus 48).
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New geographical areas were affected with the occurrence of six of the nine episodes in departments where no autochthonous case had previously been identified, in the south-west of France and in Corsica. Transmission was also earlier, with two cases showing clinical signs in June instead of July for the earliest identified cases so far.
The surveillance established in mainland France since 2006 has proven to be “effective”, according to SpF, and the “control measures put in place during the identification of cases have so far helped to limit the size of indigenous transmissions”. However, “the episodes of 2022 have put the device under tension in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur”, alerts the health agency, judging “essential to maintain, even to strengthen, the involvement of the various actors”.
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Health professionals must in particular “be better informed of the risk of indigenous transmission” of these diseases. The population must also “be better made aware of the importance of preventive measures against mosquito bites and the fight against breeding sites”, and consult a health professional in the event of a flu-like syndrome upon returning from transmission areas.