Doctors from Public Health France are currently investigating in Hyères, in the Var, to try to understand how three inhabitants of the city could have contracted the Zika virus, transmitted by the tiger mosquito.
Medical survey in the Var. On a mission in a district of Hyères, doctors from Public Health France are trying to trace the three cases of Zika that occurred in the city last summer, reveals France Televisions November 21. Although the phenomenon is over and that the population is no longer at risk, it is a question of documenting the circulation of the virus in order to better succeed in combating the spread of the infection in the future.
Half of the carriers of the virus, transmitted by the mosquito-tiger, having no symptoms, the doctors control inhabitants one by one via a blood sample and a questionnaire. This includes, for example, knowing where they have traveled to recently, because someone in Hyères went to a tropical country and got inoculated with the virus. Back in France, a French tiger mosquito then bit him and then transmitted Zika to other people by biting them in turn.
As a precaution, the municipality of Hyères has sent letters to warn its inhabitants to be careful of mosquitoes. Because although winter is coming, the eggs can survive in the gardens for between two and five years. It is therefore necessary to eliminate stagnant water, especially in empty second homes.
First cases of indigenous infections
This survey was launched after, in early November, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region announced a third case of contamination by the Zika virus in Hyères. Prior to this, no indigenous cases had ever been reported. If the patients are cured today, the disease which resembles a flu-like state, is not to be taken lightly. In pregnant women, it can cause malformations in the fetus.
Faced with these cases, as well as the increases in autochthonous dengue fever cases in mainland France, the health authorities are calling for vigilance: “These findings encourage the health authorities to increase vigilance and to disseminate prevention advice to the population. ”, explains the General Directorate of Health (DGS) in a press release.
Dengue fever is also transmitted by the tiger mosquito
The health authorities also invite “people returning from a country where the dengue, chikungunya or Zika viruses circulate” to “effectively protect themselves from mosquitoes, especially in the event of the onset of fever within 15 days of their return. , so as not to promote the spread of the disease” and “to consult their doctor without delay, reporting their recent trip.”
Remember that dengue fever, like Zika, is transmitted indirectly from one individual to another, through the bite of a tiger mosquito. The latter is present in around fifty French departments in mainland France, in particular in two-thirds of the south of France and the Paris region.
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