'Red Vigil', combat and protection… We tell you all about Aedes albicans

The thermometer has risen sharply in recent days. France is facing a wave of the heat which may continue. And at sunstroke, he flies… tiger mosquito. Installed for many years in the Indian Ocean, in Reunion, we hear it more and more in mainland France for a few years. Finally, it’s not her noise that worries (because she doesn’t do much), but what she can convey, the Ministry of Health recalls.

From May to November, this insect can prove to be a vector of ChikungunyaOr dengue or Zika.” It is, in 2022, present in all Ile-de-France departments in particular.

Size less than 0.5 cm, black wings, highly contrasting black and white striped body, more daytime than night,Aedes albopictus (This is his nickname) in place. This is nothing new. The association Vigilance moustiques is broadcasting these days a new map of the “Red Vigil” that covers a large part of France. If the “danger” is real, the UFC Que Choisir, the consumer advocacy association, regularly points to the “unnecessarily alarming” aspect of these mosquito vigilance alerts, believing it has more to do with “selling mosquito repellents.”

The Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS) specifies that “no case of transmission of the virus by this mosquito has been observed in the Ile-de-France region”. Cases of the disease have been reported in Mayotte, Reunion, Guyana, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

But prevention is essential, as the Ministry of Health insists: “It is a matter of both slowing down their progress in departments where they are not yet present and reducing the risks of importing and circulating viruses.”