iStockphoto / GordZam
The 2024 Paris Olympics are less than a month away and for the third time in as many Summer Olympic games, there is growing concern of a potential health disaster.
Last time around, the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 were postponed until 2021 for obvious reasons and athletes had their movement throughout the country restricted as well as contact with outsiders. It was surreal. Prior to that at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the concern was Zika being transmitted by the Aedes mosquito which could lead to a number of health concerns including microcephaly in infants.
Now, about 6 weeks out from the Paris Olympics, some officials are concerned these games could be a super-spreader event for Dengue Fever. They say that the conditions in Paris are perfect for a super-spreader event. An article on The Conversation breaks down how the Aedes mosquito could be perfectly adapted to causing a Dengue Fever catastrophe in Paris with multiple Dengue outbreaks happening worldwide at this point:
The tiger mosquito is perfectly adapted to the urban Paris environment. It needs just the smallest amount of water in a small container to lay its eggs. It preferentially feeds on humans, at dawn and dusk. The eggs themselves can withstand dry conditions for months. Once wet again, the eggs will hatch.
What makes this situation potentially dangerous for Paris is that some of these mosquitoes may have dengue already inside them, passed down from their mother. This could significantly reduce the number of bites needed to start an epidemic.
Each female Aedes mosquito can lay up to 200 eggs at a time. And the article says most Dengue Fever cases (from bites) are asymptomatic but carriers of the virus can then return to their home countries and spread Dengue.
The main symptoms of Dengue include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, rash. And while most cases are mild, Dengue Fever accounts for around 5,000 deaths per year globally. Dr. Mark Booth, a Newcastle University expert in parasite epidemiology, says “anyone living, working, visiting, competing, volunteering or even just passing through Paris during the Olympic period is going to be part of a huge natural experiment – whether they know it or not.”
I’ve been with someone on a trip in Costa Rica when they got Dengue and it is absolutely NOT something I ever want to experience myself. He was battling a very high fever and was telling us how it felt like his body was on fire for days.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says there have been over 3,000 Dengue-related deaths so far this year with an astounding 6 million cases being reported earlier this year in Brazil.
It remains to be seen if Dengue Fever will actually have an impact on the Paris Olympics. The concern is, of course, that the tropical disease not only spreads around Paris but is then brought around the globe by asymptomatic athletes to tropical countries where the disease then flourishes.