Bed bugs are no longer the pests Paris authorities are most concerned about. Mosquitoes have taken over. And that’s for one compelling reason: fear of a hypothetical dengue outbreak in the middle of the Olympic Games.
mosquito finder The Regional Health Agency (ARS) of the Paris metropolitan area, Île-de-France, has started A dengue prevention campaign has been stepped up ahead of the start of this summer’s Olympic Games in the French capital
This includes a group of people who will install and maintain a total of 526 mosquito traps, The British newspaper reported telegraphwho refer to them as “dengue detectives”.
The job of these “detectives” is to monitor the presence of tiger mosquitoes, a species whose presence has increased significantly in Paris in recent years. RFI and AFP explained Kevin Meignan. Meignan works for the Mosquito Control Agency, under ARS, the agency responsible for conducting this work
tiger mosquito These traps target tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus), a species of mosquito from Southeast Asia that has expanded throughout the Mediterranean basin in recent years. Not only do these mosquitoes pose a risk of dengue transmission, they can also act as vectors for yellow fever and blue fever transmission.
The presence of these mosquitoes has spread to various parts of continental France, reaching Paris. in September Last year they started smoking to prevent the expansion of these animals, now the authorities also use traps to prevent their reproduction. The breeding season of this insect occurs between May and November.
Anti-mosquito traps. the trap They consist of a bucket with water Where a small thick piece of polystyrene is placed for mosquitoes to lay their eggs, covered with a mesh to prevent the polystyrene from escaping.
The people in charge of the traps change the polystyrene every month and take them to the laboratory to study the presence of these mosquito eggs and, if so, their numbers, Meignan explained.
How serious is the warning? Although the risk of dengue outbreaks worries the authorities, it is advised not to overestimate the risk of such a situation and its impact on public health. this week Spreading false information which maintained that the French media were talking about a “panic” situation in Paris.
A combination of summer temperatures, mosquitoes and human crowds makes the disease more likely to spread and warrants caution. But that doesn’t give rise to “panic” talk.
More than mosquitoes. We can frame this in the wider range of measures that the French and Paris authorities are taking to ensure that the Olympic Games can proceed as normal. Measures that also include, for example, a radical change to the Seine, which runs through the capital.
Paris wants its river, so far polluted by various kinds of waste, to be clean as a whistle. So that sports can be organized there. Not an easy task that gave us a lot to talk about.
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