Rising dengue cases have France on alert ahead of the Olympics.

French authorities have launched a surveillance plan amid a sharp increase in imported cases of dengue fever. and in anticipation that they may grow even more due to the arrival of visitors to Olympic Games in Paris.

From January 1 to April 19, 2024, registered in metropolitan France 1679 imported dengue caseswhich is thirteen times more than in the same period last year.

“Vigilance is necessary”The Pasteur Institute, which specializes in disease prevention in that country, stressed in a statement on Tuesday, citing a record number of recorded infections.

France recorded 45 local dengue cases in 2023, but until June 11 “nothing found”

For its part, the French public health agency reported.

Given the flow of foreign visitors in the run-up to the Games, which start July 26 and with which the French capital will accept more than ten million touristsHealth authorities fear that the situation will worsen due to the possible implantation of arboviruses in people from endemic countries.

The situation would not be unprecedented at Olympic tournaments, as there were precedents in Brazil in 2016, when the competition was almost postponed due to a warning about the Zika virus, and in Tokyo 2020 due to the possible impact on the number of Covid cases.

Dengue is a virus transmitted by Aedes albopictus, also known as the tiger mosquito. after it ingested pathogens by biting a person already carrying the disease. It is not transmitted between people and its effects.

Pasteur notes, Usually in 80% of cases the disease is asymptomatic.

It is this latter feature that complicates health surveillance, whose protocol currently states that if a person is diagnosed, regional health authorities must find out where they live or have spent the last few days in order to determine areas to be disinfested.

Researchers from the Pasteur Institute, together with the Regional Agency for Deworming and the National Reference Center for Arboviruses (Inserm-Irba), showed that The tiger mosquito, found in the Paris region, is capable of transmitting five viruses. – West Nile, Chikungunya, Usutu, Zika and dengue fever.

Incubation periods are different for each virus and range – at an outside temperature of 28 degrees – from three days in the case of West Nile to twenty-one days in the case of Zika or dengue.

Health authorities have recorded the presence of the tiger mosquito in 78 departments of metropolitan France. and they warn that the fact that “the climate is becoming warmer” favors vector transmission.

recommendation for all people returning from a trip or entering the country with symptoms of fever or pain This go “immediately” to your family doctor and write down the area where they came from.