Halfway through the year, the highest number of imported cases of dengue fever in mainland France has already been recorded. At least 2,666 people brought the disease back from a trip abroad since January 1, the vast majority of them (76%) from Martinique and Guadeloupe. While most cases are asymptomatic, dengue fever can prove fatal. The initial symptoms of the disease – high fever, severe headaches, muscle pain, nausea – are not specific to dengue fever and can be confused with other illnesses.
A major epidemic has been raging on those two Caribbean islands since the summer of 2023, with an estimated 35,000 symptomatic cases and 85 people admitted to intensive care. Nineteen people have died from the disease in the space of a year – the normal mortality rate in these islands where the disease is endemic, with an epidemic peak every four to five years. While the epidemic is in its downward phase in Guadeloupe, it is still ongoing in Martinique.
Nevertheless, as of June 11, according to the latest data from Santé Publique France (SPF, Public Health France), no local cases had yet been detected in mainland France. This means that, in principle, no infected person has been bitten by a tiger mosquito which would then have transmitted dengue fever in mainland France. "But the more imported cases there are, the greater the risk of epidemic outbreaks in France," noted Marie-Claire Paty, coordinator of vector-borne disease surveillance at SPF's Infectious Diseases Department. "This risk will also increase from year to year." Since the first outbreaks were observed in 2010, there have been outbreaks almost every year, with a 2022 summer peak of 65 native cases in nine outbreaks.
Particularly as Aedes albopictus – the scientific name for the tiger mosquito – the sole carrier of the disease in France, is continuing to colonize new communities every year, its presence having been reported in 78 regional departments, an increase of seven in just one year. All regions are now affected by this invasive species, which arrived in France in 2004.
As summer temperatures gradually rise, weather conditions will become increasingly favorable for the rapid hatching of mosquito eggs, further increasing the risk of contagion. "All the lights are green for endemic contagion in mainland France," stressed André Cabié, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at Martinique University Hospital.
"The French situation reflects what's happening worldwide," underlined Paty. In Europe, imported and domestic cases of dengue fever have also soared in recent years (4,900 and 130 respectively in 2023). Aedes albopictus is spreading further north, east and west in Europe, and now has autonomous populations in 13 European countries, according to a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) statement on Thursday, June 13. Meanwhile, the Aedes aegypti mosquito – a cousin of Aedes albopictus and also a carrier of the disease – has recently established itself in Cyprus and several peripheral regions of the European Union, such as Madeira.
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