Gard identifies its first two indigenous cases of the year, 15 cases identified in France in 2024

Two residents of Gard have contracted the West Nile virus. A total of 15 indigenous cases have been detected in France since the beginning of the year.

After circulating in the Var in August, the West Nile virus was identified in the Gard, in two residents of Vauvert, France Bleu Gard Lozère learned from the Gard prefecture and the Occitanie regional health agency (ARS) this Thursday. In total, France has had 15 indigenous cases since the start of 2024: 12 cases in the Var from mid-July to the end of August, one case in Guadeloupe at the start of August, and now two cases in the Gard.

It was during a screening for blood donation that the West Nile Virus was detected, indicates France Bleu Gard Lozère. The two infected people did not need to be hospitalized, unlike four other patients in the Var, who had presented neuro-invasive forms at the end of August.

The signs of the first case in Vauvert in the Gard date from August 23, 2024, announces Public Health France on its data web page updated Wednesday, September 4. After the Var, it is therefore the second department to record indigenous human cases, that is to say caused by an infected mosquito and which circulates in mainland France, in 2024. In Vauvert, an equine case was also identified, the horse died of the disease.

The virus is also being actively monitored in the overseas departments with a first human case identified on Wednesday August 7 in Guadeloupe. “The West Nile virus is considered today to be the second most widespread flavivirus after dengue fever.”recalled the regional health agency of Guadeloupe. No epidemic has been recorded in Reunion or Mayotte, “but the virus is circulating endemically in Madagascar”adds Public Health France, with an isolated case also identified in Mayotte in 2021.

The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Culex, the common mosquito in France which feeds mainly in the evening and at night, to be differentiated from the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) which feeds during the day. “Culex mosquitoes are infected exclusively through contact with infected birds,” specifies the regional health agency of Paca. “Humans and horses are “accidental hosts” of the virus. There is no transmission of the virus from human to human (or from horse to human) via mosquitoes.”

According to data known to health authorities in August 2024, 80% of West Nile virus infections are asymptomatic. In 20% of cases, the patient presents with a “flu-like syndrome (fever, pain, headache)”. And in less than 1% of infections, there may be neurological complications, especially in immunocompromised individuals.