With the Paris Olympics less than a year away, concerns about bedbugs potentially affecting attendees at the upcoming Summer Games have sparked calls for action.
Videos of these creatures moving about on high-speed trains and the Paris Metro have been shared on social media.
Also, numerous individuals have claimed to spot them in theaters and even at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
This week, the country’s transport minister, Clement Beaune, held discussions with transportation companies to formulate a strategy for monitoring and disinfection.
“There is no resurgence of cases,” Beaune said, telling reporters that 37 cases reported in the bus and Metro system and a dozen others on trains proved are already under control.
Promising to “reassure and protect” travelers using public transit systems, Beaune said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that operators would “act more to serve customers.”
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“The state urgently needs to put an action plan in place against this scourge as France is preparing to welcome the Olympics and paralympic games in 2024, the capital’s deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said in a letter to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
In response to the deputy mayor’s letter, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has called a ministerial meeting scheduled for Friday to address the bedbug crisis.
Gregoire emphasized that bedbugs have been a historical issue in Paris and are likely to persist.
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He views the upcoming Olympics, scheduled for late July 2024, as a chance for collective efforts to address this problem.
A report from the National Agency for Health and Food Safety revealed that over 10% of households in France had bedbug infestations from 2017 to 2022.
The agency conducted a survey with the help of Ipsos to ask people about this issue, which many tend to avoid discussing due to concerns about being stigmatized if they admit to having a bedbug problem.
