An epidemic of bedbugs invades Paris and worries as the 2024 Olympic Games approach

A bedbug infestation has hit Paris and other French cities, causing a wave of insectophobia and raising questions about health and safety at next year’s Olympic Games, Britain’s BBC reports.

The latest bedbug infestation in Paris has spread beyond the mattresses where they usually reside. It is now gaining space in cinema seats, on subways and trains, as well as in schools and hospitals. According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), in the French capital, the professionals responsible for eliminating these pests are overwhelmed, to the point that the capital’s Town Hall has requested help from the French state. “An invasion which becomes a psychosis”, underlines the half-Galic.

“Every end of summer we see a considerable increase in bedbugs,” Jean-Michel Bérenger, an entomologist at Marseille’s main hospital and France’s leading bedbug expert, told the BBC. “It’s because people traveled during the months of July and August and they bring them in their luggage (…) And each year, the seasonal increase is greater than the previous one,” adds -he.

Paris City Hall takes the problem very seriously, notes RFI. For the most modest households, it reimburses the costs of disinfection of homes, while demanding a large-scale plan for all of France. Less than a year before the Olympic Games, hoteliers and tourism professionals are also worried about the situation. The Ministry of the Environment has already created a website full of tips for avoiding bedbugs.

“Bed bugs are a public health problem and should be reported as such. It is necessary for the State to urgently bring together the actors concerned to implement an action plan commensurate with this scourge,” the deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, told EFE.

Grégoire, lieutenant of the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, sent a letter to French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne asking her to organize a “national congress” on the scourges and demanded that the regional health agency assume “the financial cost ” disinfections, but also ” the psychological “.

“We are worried because it is an invasive species. If we do not address the problem at the root, we could be overwhelmed,” warned Hidalgo’s number two, who proposed that home insurance – compulsory in France – also include a clause on the risk of bedbugs. bed.

In the coming days, a “meeting will take place with all the ministries concerned” by this issue, Borne promised this Tuesday, questioned in the National Assembly by Mathilde Panot, president of the group of deputies of La Francia Insumisa (radical left), who He accused him of having “done nothing” against the proliferation of these insects in recent years. The 2022 interministerial plan “has provided some initial answers” ​​and “an observatory” is “in progress”, added Borne.

According to RFI, La Francia Insumisa proposes the creation of a “public disinfestation service”, which would be free, in particular to prevent insurance companies from covering disinfection costs, which could lead to an increase in the price of contracts. The Socialists, for their part, will present a bill so that all home insurance includes “coverage against the risks derived from bedbug infestation”, and that establishments open to the public are obliged to monitor and control the presence of bedbugs.

French health experts estimate that a tenth of French households have experienced a bedbug problem in recent years, which usually requires a pest control operation costing several hundred euros and having to be repeated often.

The National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) estimated in July 2023 a cost of 230 million euros per year for households struggling to get rid of bedbugs, and 83 million euros in health expenses .

As the Daily Mail reports, social media in France has been filled with videos in which public transport users record these insects in places like the Paris metro, buses, high-speed trains and at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Gaulle, the largest in the country. French country.

“This year, there is a new element: the general psychosis which has spread,” explains Bérenger. “In a way, it’s a good thing because it raises awareness of the problem and the sooner we act against bedbugs, the better (…) But a lot of the problem is exaggerated,” explains the BBC expert.

Nicolas Roux de Bézieux, founder of the bedbug detection company Dogtector and author of a manual for combating these insects, believes in the same sense. “The increase in the number of news articles is greater than the increase in the number of bedbugs,” he told the French edition of the online magazine Slate.

It is difficult to know with certainty the number of bedbug epidemics in France. Many people choose not to declare their presence, because there is still a preconceived idea that the presence of bedbugs in the house is linked to dirt, notes RFI. According to the results of a study by the Inserm Sentinelles network, between April 2019 and March 2020, 39% of patients who consulted a doctor for bedbug bites suffered from insomnia, and 39% considered that the infestation had had a impact on their health. … your professional, family or social life.

These insects, which act mainly at night to feed on human blood and reproduce easily, were eradicated in the middle of the 20th century, until their return to France at the end of the 90s, notes EFE.

Experts say the increase in bedbug incidence is due to a multitude of causes, such as increased global tourism and the movement of people and luggage, combined with high temperatures due to climate change. Additionally, these insects have acquired immunity to many of the chemicals that try to eliminate them.

In addition to sucking blood, their bites can cause a number of dermatological symptoms, including skin irritation, redness, and an intense itching sensation. The most commonly affected areas are the neck, hands and extremities, although it is not uncommon for bites to appear on other parts of the body. These bites can spread throughout the body and lead to more serious symptoms such as blisters and severe hives, details Infobae.