every time As the Olympics approach, another disease seems to emerge to threaten the games: Zika at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and COVID-19 at the postponed Tokyo Olympics. 2024 Paris Olympics What will you do this summer? It doesn’t matter which one you choose. Authorities are working to contain both dengue fever and measles, which are on the rise in France and many other countries.
Millions of people from around the world will flock to the host city during the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. French authorities are preparing to welcome more than 15 million tourists to the country. That’s a huge influx of people, even for a capital city used to mass tourism, where nearly 40 million people visit Paris every year. Some will bring infectious diseases with them, and those without adequate immunity risk catching something during their stay. Dengue fever and measles are already problems in Paris, and authorities are considering ways to limit the possibility of the Olympics becoming a super-spreader event.
“The risk of a dengue epidemic is very difficult to contain,” explains Anna Bella Faille, a medical entomologist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. The virus is transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes, and in France the invasive Aedes albopictus mosquito is the culprit. Aedes albopictusRising temperatures exacerbate the mosquito problem, with Europe’s hot summers creating ideal conditions for mosquitoes to breed: “The eggs are very resistant and the mosquito’s metabolism speeds up in the heat. They mature faster and therefore bite faster.”
In France, the Tiger Mosquito is not new: it appeared in the south in 2004 and has been present in Paris since 2015. Native to Asia, this mosquito lays eggs in still puddles that can hatch weeks later, even after the water has evaporated. This is how it spread across Europe, first arriving in Genoa, Italy, and then in France.
But dengue is a relatively recent problem. Epidemics of the virus are raging in tropical parts of the world, with an estimated 10 million cases worldwide this year, with South America and Southeast Asia hard hit, but France is also seeing a sharp increase in cases. Between January 1 and April 30, 2024, health authorities 2,166 ResultsThe average for the same period over the past five years was just 128. Most of the cases this year have been imported from the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana, where outbreaks are ongoing, but the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says some cases have been recorded in Europe this year, including in France.
This highlights the risk of hosting international gatherings at a time when cases are surging around the world: if this leads to an increase in imported cases in Paris, the large numbers of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes could spread the virus within the country.
In most cases, the infection Asymptomatic or mild feverBut in some patients, the disease becomes severe and can be fatal. There is no specific treatment for the virus, and few people in Europe have immunity from previous infection. Vaccines have only become available in recent years, and are offered only in a few countries with high infection rates.
