More than 3,000 cases of dengue fever have been imported into metropolitan France since the start of the year, a record, but the curve has been decreasing for several weeks, Public Health France announced on Friday.
"On a French scale and especially on a global scale, the years 2023 and 2024 were record years for the number of dengue cases," stressed Marie-Claire Paty, coordinator of vector-borne disease surveillance within the SpF infectious diseases department.
Between May 1, which marks the start of the period of reinforced surveillance, and August 6, SpF recorded nearly 1,000 imported cases of dengue fever in mainland France.
However, "the curve of these imported cases has been decreasing for several weeks, in parallel with the epidemics which are marking time in the Antilles and Latin America," qualified Ms Paty during a press briefing.
Regarding indigenous cases, namely a person contaminated by the tiger mosquito without having recently travelled to an area where the virus is circulating, SpF reports “small episodes of transmission”, “unrelated to the Olympic Games”.
Thus, an indigenous case of dengue fever was detected in Montpellier, two other cases in La Colle-sur-Loup (Alpes-Maritimes) as well as three cases in Occitanie.
An indigenous case of chikungunya, the first of the year in France, was recorded in the Paris region in July.
To the extent that "the risk is greater in August and September", "it is likely that we will have other outbreaks in the coming weeks" for these two abroviruses, warned Ms Paty.
Regarding the West Nile virus, SpF has identified "three cases of infection west of Toulon" and very recently "a first human case in Guadeloupe".
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