The French government announced on Tuesday that it will hold emergency meetings this week to investigate the growing number of reported cases of bed bugs, which are increasingly seen as a potentially major public health problem.
In recent weeks, bedbugs have gone from a source of possible ridicule to a controversial political issue in France, with shocked citizens reporting sightings of the creatures in places such as trains, the Paris metro and cinemas.
The concerns took on added weight at a time when France is preparing to host the Rugby World Cup and Paris is preparing to welcome athletes and fans from around the world to the 2024 Olympic Games.
Two schools – one in Marseille and the other in Villefranche-sur-Saone, outside Lyon in southeastern France – were infested with bedbugs and were closed for several days for cleaning, local authorities said.
The aim of a meeting next Wednesday, involving transport and passenger organizations with Transport Minister Clement Beaune, will be to “quantify the situation and strengthen the measures”, his ministry said.
“We want to inform about the actions taken and actions at the service of passengers to reassure and protect”the ministry said.
A meeting between the ministries will take place on Friday, government spokesman Olivier Veran announced to RTL TV, promising to “provide answers quickly to the French”.
Meanwhile, the leader of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party in the French National Assembly, Sylvain Maillard, said a cross-party bill to combat the “scourge” of bed bugs will be presented “in early December.”
Maillard stated that the president’s party and its allies had decided to make the issue a “priority” and demanded that the right-wing and far-left opposition make suggestions for an inter-party text.
The Minister of Health, Aurelien Rousseau, insisted on the radio France Inter that there was no “general panic” over the issue.
“What worries me is that people are not being misled by companies that force them to pay 2,000 or 3,000 euros” to rid their homes of bedbugs, he added, denouncing “abuse” in the pest control industry.
Public health problem
Bed bugs, which largely disappeared from everyday life in the 1950s, have reappeared in recent decades, mainly due to high population density and the increase in mass transportation.
It is believed that a tenth of all French homes have suffered a bedbug problem in recent years, usually requiring a pest control operation costing several hundred euros and often having to be repeated.
The blood-sucking insects have been spotted on the Paris metro, high-speed trains and at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.
However, individual cases have not been confirmed by authorities and authorities RMCTV reported that an investigation by Parisian transporter RATP found no bedbugs in its services.
Renaissance MP Bruno Studer said counting the number of bedbugs will be a priority for the future. “We don’t know today if there are more bed bugs than in 2019,” he said.
In addition to the development of statistical tools, the text could make it possible to recognize the problem as “a public health problem,” according to his party colleague Robin Reda.
“We wasted six years. The government has done nothing,” said Mathilde Panot, leader of the far-left group of deputies França Insubmissa, adding that “the urgency is to act now” with a national prevention plan, an emergency fund and the creation of public disinfection services.
Bed bugs get their name from their habit of making nests in mattresses, although they can also hide in clothing and luggage and come out at night to feed on human blood.
Bed bug bites cause redness, blisters or large rashes on the skin and can cause severe itching or allergic reactions, and also often cause psychological problems, sleep problems, anxiety and depression.
Source: DN
