New Caledonia has fallen into a state of dengue epidemic. 615 cases have been declared on the archipelago since the beginning of the year, including a large half in the city of Noumea alone. All neighborhoods are affected and the authorities are already counting two deaths a week apart. Two healthy young women with no medical history who have not traveled in the weeks prior to their infection. The virus is therefore present in New Caledonian territory. Tristan Derycke, deputy mayor of Nouméa, explains to the Parisian that the city “fears a major epidemic because three out of four dengue serotypes are circulating”.
A situation which prompts the authorities to react to guard against the infection transmitted by mosquitoes. The fight against these insects is intensifying: twenty agents in the field instead of the current ten will roam the streets to do prevention with the population and destroy the breeding grounds in the homes of the sick. The government also calls for civic-mindedness from residents who can detect and eliminate these sources of viruses by taking care of objects, plants or green waste in gardens. So many places mosquitoes love to breed.
Mosquitoes resistant and difficult to dislodge
Unfortunately, Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes are tenacious, they develop resistance against insecticides. Here again, the solution comes from targeting the larvae, which are easier to eliminate. In addition to its resistance, this species is also silent, which is why the government has set up an awareness campaign under the slogan “dengue kills in silence”. She encourages New Caledonians to cover themselves with body repellents several times a day. Hope now also comes from a new technique for eradicating mosquitoes by introducing a bacterium (wolbachia) into the environment. According to Tristan Derycke, this method “should lead to the elimination of dengue fever by 2019”.
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