A second case of imported dengue has been discovered near Toulouse. Carrier of the virus, the infected patient can be at the origin of other cases of dengue if he is bitten by a tiger mosquito. A mosquito control operation is therefore scheduled.
The Regional Health Agency of Occitanie (ARS) has been informed of a second case of dengue in the region. After Blagnac, it was in Balma, in the suburbs of Toulouse that a dengue fever was diagnosed in a patient returning from a trip to an endemic area.
Due to the presence of the Tiger mosquito in the region, which is the natural vector of dengue, a mosquito control operation has been scheduled to prevent the virus from being transmitted to other people.
Mosquito control against transmission
This is the 6th mosquito control operation carried out in France since the start of the surveillance period for this viral infection, which is on the rise this year in the Pacific region and in Asia.
Some people who travel to these countries contract the infection and bring it back to France. The tiger mosquito, which now proliferates in Occitania, becomes infected by biting a sick person and can transmit dengue fever to other people in the vicinity.
It can be the same with chikungunya and zika. Mosquito control operations are therefore organized over a large area around the patient’s home.
Symptoms of dengue
Dengue, also called “tropical flu”, is a tropical hemorrhagic fever linked to an arbovirus, transmitted by the bite of a female tiger mosquito only. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the number of annual cases in the world at 50 million, including 500,000 cases of “hemorrhagic” dengue, that is to say which are fatal in more than 2.5% cases. Dengue is initially present in the tropics and subtropics of the world.
Symptoms of dengue fever appear 3 to 14 days (on average 4 to 7 days) after the infective bite. A flu syndrome is then observed affecting infants, young children and adults. There is no specific treatment. While dengue hemorrhagic fever is a life-threatening complication, early clinical diagnosis and prompt clinical management often save lives.
Majority of imported cases
Imported cases of dengue, chikungunya or zika are quite frequent in Occitania since the establishment of the tiger mosquito in this region. Indigenous cases are much rarer, but have been reported in Italy and the Var.
The Tiger mosquito remaining where it was born and hardly moving, it is enough to make a mosquito control 150 meters around the home of the patient. In theory, this is effective, but you should know that not all infections with the dengue virus cause symptoms and it is therefore possible that the virus is still transmitted.
Protect yourself from mosquitoes day and night
Vaccination against dengue fever is quite complicated to set up and is not available. We must therefore protect ourselves from the Tiger mosquito from the beginning of May to the end of November, which is the period of circulation of the virus. But it’s not enough to protect yourself at night: unlike most mosquitoes which bite only in the evening and at night, the Tiger mosquito, like other Aedes mosquitoes, bites during the day. It is particularly active in the early morning and late afternoon.
The Tiger mosquito is recognizable by its pointed abdomen, stripes … and its aggressiveness.
The tiger mosquito is active in Ile-de-France
How to protect yourself and report it ?????
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via @ARS_IDF#prevention #health #mosquito # bite #sickness #dengue #Zika pic.twitter.com/qGhJvAMmKg– Practical Health Paris (@SanteParis) August 23, 2018
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