- Citizens have reported finding bedbugs in places like trains, the Paris metro, and movie theaters.
- the French government plans to hold emergency meetings to discuss the growing number of bedbug infections.
- Due to increased public transit and high population concentrations, bedbugs have returned in recent years.
Citizens have reported finding bedbugs in places like trains, the Paris metro, and movie theaters, turning bedbugs into a divisive political problem in France. This week, the French government plans to hold emergency meetings to discuss the growing number of bedbug infections that have been reported, which are increasingly being considered a serious potential public health issue.
With France hosting the Rugby World Cup and Paris getting ready to welcome players and spectators from all over the world for the 2024 Olympics, the worries have received further weight.
Emergency meetings
Due to bedbug infestation, two schools in Marseille and Villefranche-sur-Saone, both west of Lyon, had to be shuttered for several days.
To “quantify the situation and strengthen the measures,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune will welcome transportation and passenger groups. On Friday, an inter-ministerial conference will be held to “rapidly bring answers for the French.”
Aurelien Rousseau, minister of health, said there was no “general panic” about the problem and criticized “abuses” in the pest control industry.
Due to increased public transit and high population concentrations, bedbugs have returned in recent years. Over the past few years, it’s estimated that one in ten French houses have experienced a bedbug infestation, necessitating expensive pest control procedures that frequently need to be repeated.
The blood-sucking insects have been seen on high-speed trains, the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, and the city’s metro system.
Bruno Studer, a Renaissance MP, stated that monitoring the number of bedbugs would be a priority in the future because it is unknown whether there are more bedbugs today than in 2019.
