What is this autochthonous case of arbovirus detected in the Landes?

He will remain as the first autochthonous case of arbovirosis in New Aquitaine. The ARS (Regional Health Agency) indicates this Friday that a patient in the Landes contracted an arbovirosis-type disease on October 7, which was not confirmed until October 18.

Arbovirosis is precisely a type of viral disease, which can be dengue fever, zika virus, or west nile (west Nile virus), but in this case, we do not yet know which one it is. These diseases are transmitted by the tiger mosquito, or the culex mosquito in the case of west nile, generally in the intertropical zone. But this time, the person who contracted the disease had not traveled, so we are talking about an indigenous case.

No risk of “endemization”

“The patient therefore contracted the disease locally after being bitten by a mosquito, which itself had caught it by biting a person suffering from dengue fever or zyka who was returning from the intertropical zone”, explains Fabienne Jouanthoua, head of the pole. health-environment at ARS Gironde. The disease is expressed by flu-like syndromes, “and the patient is doing well” she specifies.

Treatments against mosquitoes will be implemented overnight Friday to Saturday in perimeters of 150 meters, in Biscarrosse and Parentis in the Landes, and Bordeaux, Le Pian-Médoc and Le Bouscat in Gironde, where the patient had moved, with the aim of “removing the chain of transmission”.

The ARS considers that there is no reason to fear “endemization” in the region. “Unlike the intertropical zone, we are lucky to have a winter, a period when mosquitoes disappear. The tiger mosquito dies and overwinters as an egg, while the culex goes into hibernation. Winter thus makes it possible to cut all the chains of transmission: the counters are reset to zero, and populations free from disease arrive in the spring. “The fact remains that it is necessary to destroy all the breeding places around your home.