Many residents of Perpignan station and the police station received a letter from the ARS, the regional health agency, in their mailboxes this Friday: “A local transmission of dengue fever has been identified in your neighborhood in Perpignan“. For the first time in the Pyrénées-Orientales, a resident was therefore contaminated without having traveled : the disease was transmitted to him in Perpignan by a tiger mosquito.
The regional health agency triggers a vast action plan. From Tuesday August 2 to Thursday August 4, an epidemiological survey will be carried out in the neighborhood to “identify any other people who may have been ill“. Investigators will go door to door to question the inhabitants.
Dengue is “generally mild disease“, specifies the ARS, with symptoms “close to those of the flu (high fevers, joint pain, vomiting) which can be temporarily disabling.“The state of health of the infected person in Perpignan does not inspire concern.
Exceptional mosquito control operation
At the same time, the company Altopictus is commissioned to carry out a treatment “preventive, exceptional“. The objective is to eradicate tiger mosquitoes from the neighborhood and avoid cascading contamination.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, an insecticide will be sprayed by a vehicle traveling on the public highway. “Machines are very noisy“, specifies the company. The duration of the treatment is approximately one hour.
Instructions to follow before treatment
- Bring in laundry, toys or animal bowls.
- Cover ponds, swimming pools and sandpits.
- Close all windows facing the public thoroughfare and keep them closed one hour following the intervention.
Instructions to follow following the treatment
- Rinse garden furniture and children’s games with water.
- Wait three days to consume fruits and vegetables for drinking, without forgetting to rinse them.