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Nicolas Gosselin
Published on November 7, 2024 at 6:31 p.m.
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Admitted to intensive care at Bordeaux University Hospital, an 80 year old man almost died following a infection by virus West Nilewho is transmitted by mosquitoes (the Culex precisely, the common mosquito).
“He had not traveled and had no medical history”, specifies to Bordeaux news Laurent Filleul, the regional delegate of Public Health France.
According to this expert, the patient presented the first signs on September 7, 2024, with headaches and marked fatigue, before being admitted to intensive care on September 14. At the beginning of November, he was still hospitalized but his state of health had improved.
Global warming as the culprit?
“Like dengue, the West Nile virus does not present no specific signs at the start »explains Laurent Filleul, who adds that health professionals – including veterinarians – were alerted as soon as this case of West Nile virus, as it is also called, was detected in Bordeaux.
This virus has been new in New Aquitaine since 2023 where 29 indigenous cases had been identified in humans. In 2022, only horses had been contaminated. In France, it is normally found rather on the Mediterranean rimparticularly in the Camargue.
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For Laurent Filleul, this circulation from the West Nile to New Aquitaine may have a link with global warming. “As a result, the mosquito develops and as the region is located at the level of a stream of migratory birds…”
Car the bird may carry West Nile and through the mosquito, it would thus pass from the bird to the human, knowing that Man “is an epidemiological dead end”. In other words, he cannot transmit it to himself.
Blood donations tested since West Nile case
This year, another case was identified in Nouvelle-Aquitaine : in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. “It does not circulate on a large scale,” reassures Laurent Filleul. We will see if there is an emergence of the virus over the years or if the year 2023 was exceptional. For now, it is too early to know. »
An alert and surveillance system was set up by Santé Publique France, following the identified case. In addition to providing information to doctors “so that they keep the virus in mind during consultations”, all blood samples have been tested in Gironde since September 1 as a precautionbecause the virus can create complications during transfusions.
If West Nile can lead to serious forms depending on the profile of the infected person, you should know that it can also be asymptomatic.
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