FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Every time the Olympics come around, there seems to be another disease that follows the event. In Rio 2016 it was Zika. In the postponed games in Tokyo was Covid. And at the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer?
During this summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games, millions of people from all over the world will focus on the host city: the French authorities are preparing to welcome more than 15 million visitors to the country. Even for a capital used to mass tourism – nearly 40 million people visit Paris each year – that's a huge influx of people.
Some will bring infectious diseases with them. Others, without sufficient immunity, risk getting something during their stay. With dengue and measles already a problem in Paris, authorities have been planning how to limit the potential of the Games becoming a super-contagious event.
"It is very difficult to limit the risk of an epidemic when it comes to dengue," explains Anna-Bella Failloux, a medical entomologist who works at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The virus is transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes, the culprit in France being the invasive tiger mosquito. Aedes albopictus. The insect becomes a growing problem as the weather warms and Europe's hot summers are creating conditions for the species to thrive.
Tiger mosquitoes are not new to France: They arrived in the south in 2004 and have been in Paris since 2015. Originally from Asia, they lay eggs in pockets of still water, which can then hatch for weeks later, even after the water has evaporated. This explains how the bug spread to Europe, first arriving in Genoa, Italy, before making its way to France.
Dengue, however, is a more recent problem. With outbreaks of the virus flaring up in tropical parts of the world — there have been about 10 million cases worldwide this year, with South America and Southeast Asia badly affected — France has seen cases rise.
Dengue, first recorded in the 1960s in Bangladesh as Dacca fever, has already begun to put pressure on the country's health systems. Dengue is a viral infection that is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes, but there is no specific treatment for the infection.
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