Investigations are underway to determine if the patient caught the disease on the territory. This is the fifth case of dengue declared in the Pyrenees-Orientales since the beginning of May.
A new case of dengue was identified in Perpignan last week. Since May 1, four cases have been confirmed in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. But this time it might be an aboriginal case. Investigations are ongoing.
We speak of an indigenous case when the patient has contracted the disease on the territory and has not traveled to the contaminated zone in the two weeks preceding his contamination. The four cases identified since the beginning of May were imported cases: the patients had contracted the disease in areas where the virus was already circulating, in this case in Reunion and Cuba.
Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by the tiger mosquito. Fever, headache, muscle aches and nausea are the most common symptoms. Severe forms of the disease can be particularly serious.
To find out if the patient from Perpignan caught the virus directly in the Catalan department, the health authorities launched a contact tracing investigation. As during the coronavirus epidemic, it is a question of questioning the patient and the people with whom he was in contact to determine precisely the moment when he was contaminated.
This investigative work will be carried out by “the French public health and ARS Occitanie teams”, specifies Guillaume Dubois, the director of the ARS of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
To limit the proliferation of mosquitoes, you must eliminate stagnant water and protect yourself. It is recommended :
- Use repellents and wear covering clothing
- Cover unused water tanks, cisterns and swimming pools
- Empty flower pots
- Clean the gutters
- Check leaf piles for water
It is also advisable to raise awareness among your neighbours: a tiger mosquito lives within a perimeter of 150 meters. Less intuitive, the director of the ARS recommends “to maintain the graves in cemeteries, which are places conducive to the development of mosquitoes”.
When a case of dengue fever is declared, the health authorities carry out mosquito control in the area.
We inform the mayors that there will be a treatment once morest tiger mosquitoes. We will spray an insecticide on the public highway, either from a 4×4, or by more targeted interventions. We do it at night to avoid inconvenience for the populations.
Guillaume Dubois, director of the ARS of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
The director of ARS 66 wants to be reassuring and reminds us that these are “same products as in commercial mosquito repellents”. Even if the quantities are much larger, “there is no particular danger”, he assures.
Certain precautions can nevertheless be taken: close the windows, bring in the laundry and the children’s toys and wait three days before consuming fruits and vegetables from the vegetable garden. The spraying of insecticide around the home of the infected person last week in Perpignan took place on the night of July 24-25.