Two indigenous cases of Dengue fever were diagnosed in the Gard department, as indicated by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Languedoc-Roussillon. These are two people living in the same house in Nîmes, who are now cured. The ARS specifies in a press release that it “is for the moment a single and geographically isolated focus”.
We speak of autochthonous cases when the person has contracted the disease on national territory without having travel, in the previous 15 days, in an area where the virus is circulating. Since 2010, six other cases have already been declared in the PACA region.
Extensive surveillance measures
The ARS also indicated that “as soon as these cases were reported and in order to prevent any dissemination of the dengue virus, the health authorities reinforced epidemiological surveillance measures (active search for cases with doctors and laboratories in the sector) and entomological (investigation of mosquito populations and treatment with insecticides if necessary) in the places of life, work or leisure of the persons concerned”.
Dengue fever is generally mild and causes complications in about 1% of cases. For this disease, only one responsible: the tiger mosquito ! It can bite an infected person, will thus infect itself, reproduce the virus before transmitting it to the next people it bites. Already present in several regions of the metropolis, it has been spotted in recent days in the Paris region.
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