90% of the territory on red, orange or purple alert

Mosquito Vigilance has published the 2024 map of the presence of the tiger mosquito. It shows a “marked evolution” of the departments registered in orange, red or purple vigilance.

The “Mosquito Vigilance” site publishes its map of the presence of the tiger mosquito in 2024 on Thursday May 16. “90% of the territory” East “on alert red, orange or purple”, alerts the specialized site. The gradation is in five alert levels: green, yellow, orange, red and purple, which represents the maximum level. “Mosquito Vigilance” is also concerned about new contaminations in connection with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Red vigilance concerns 74 mainland departments, 79 if we add those of the Overseas Territories, which represents almost 80% of the territory. Three new departments were added this year to the list: Seine-Maritime, Oise and Moselle. Seven departments have gone into purple vigilance. It’s a color “reserved for departments where one or more cases of indigenous disease have been recorded in 2023”that is to say where people have been contaminated by dengue, Zika or chikungunya in the department, and not by having traveled abroad.

Twelve departments are on orange alert, that is to say “the tiger mosquito has been intercepted or observed sporadically there”. Nine were added this year to this category: Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Eure, Calvados, Manche, Sarthe, Creuse and Vosges. According to site observations, “departments placed on orange vigilance sooner or later (often within 5 years) move to red vigilance”. In total, nine epidemic outbreaks were recorded in France in 2023, a figure already recorded in 2022. The outbreaks are mainly concentrated in the south of the territory, with in particular the Pyrénées-Orientales and the Alpes-Maritimes which experienced epidemic outbreaks two consecutive years.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are a source of concern for “Mosquito Vigilance”: “The expected tourist flows will increase the risk of the appearance of imported cases of dengue, chikungunya or Zika”. However, when they appear “in departments in red or purple, the risk of developing outbreaks of indigenous cases increases with it”. He recalls the case of Italy, where more than 300 cases were recorded, a month and a half after the arrival on the territory of a carrier.

The tiger mosquito is “smaller than a 1 cent coin”has a “slow flight and is quite easy to crash in flight”he is “black with white stripes (we should have called it zebra mosquito, but it lost its dangerous connotation)”, specifies the site. “Mosquito Vigilance” invites you to declare its presence if you spot it and to take care not to let it proliferate, in particular by monitoring small stagnant water in gardens or outdoor spaces (dishes, children’s toys, ponds, pots of flowers…).