Could Dengue Fever Affect the 2024 Olympics?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Dengue fever cases are on the rise globally. In the first six months of 2024, the United States reported 10 million cases of the virus. This is especially concerning since there were only 5 million cases reported in total in 2023.

While the concept of super-spreader events certainly isn’t new, it became a common phrase at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With that in mind, experts are now worried about the potential of the 2024 Paris Olympics becoming a super spreader for Dengue fever.

With the opening ceremony scheduled for July 26, 2024 and some of the games having already gotten underway, many people are questioning if Dengue fever will affect the 2024 Olympics.

Learn more about the threat that Dengue fever poses and how this year’s games may be impacted in the event of an outbreak.

What is Dengue Fever?

Before we dive into questions surrounding the potential impact of Dengue fever on the Paris Olympics, let’s learn a bit more about what Dengue fever is and its symptoms.

Dengue fever, which is also known as bone break fever, is a virus that’s transmitted from mosquitoes to humans.

Typically, the virus is most prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas of the globe, such as parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Southwest Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South America. It is also worth noting that not all mosquitoes are carriers of Dengue.

Typically, the virus is found in Tiger mosquitoes.

Most people who contract the virus don’t experience any symptoms. It’s entirely possible to have been exposed to the virus and to have contracted it without knowing it.

While the most severe cases of Dengue fever can be fatal, that is rare and typically impacts those who have pre-existing health conditions or other comorbidities. Since most people don’t know that they have the virus due to a lack of symptoms, it’s not always easy to track the virus’ duration.

Symptoms of Dengue Fever

Those who present with symptoms usually start exhibiting symptoms between four and 10 days after contracting it.

The symptoms typically last for somewhere between two and seven days. It’s worth noting that there are actually two sets of Dengue symptoms, those that present in a patient’s first run-in with the virus and those that present afterwards.

Some of the earliest symptoms of the virus include a fever, which may reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Other symptoms include headache, muscle pain, and joint pain, all of which are also common symptoms of Flu A, Flu B, COVID-19, and virtually every other virus.

These common symptoms lead many people to not seek treatment or even a formal diagnosis, as they often assume that they have something else. Other symptoms include a rash, swollen glands, vomiting, nausea, and pain behind the eyes.

Unlike some other common viruses, people who get Dengue for a second time are more likely to experience severe symptoms.

Once the fever has gone away, the second bout of Dengue often presents with bleeding gums and nose, shortness of breath, persistent vomiting, and severe abdominal pain. Severe fatigue, restlessness, consistent thirst and dry mouth, and pale, cold skin are all symptoms of a second bout of Dengue.

Will Dengue Fever Affect the Olympics?

The 2020 Summer Olympics, which were scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan, wound up taking place in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down live sporting events, travel, and more.

With that in mind, the recent uptick in Dengue fever cases has been a topic of much discussion, as global health officials, the Olympic Committee, and government officials in Paris monitor the situation.

Much of the concern relates to an outbreak of Dengue fever that took place in Paris, France, the host city of the 2024 Summer Olympics in September 2023.

This outbreak was notable for a couple of reasons. First of all, the Paris outbreak was the northernmost outbreak that has ever been recorded.

As we discussed earlier, Dengue fever is more common in tropical and subtropical climates, where mosquitoes are more prevalent. This outbreak in a place like Paris, France was especially concerning.

One of the first things that epidemiologists and other experts check for when a virus breaks out in a new area is whether the people who test positive have traveled recently.

Of the positive cases that were reported in September of 2023, none of them had traveled abroad, which is the second reason that this outbreak was so unique. This meant that Dengue was transmissible in Northern Europe.

The Olympics are among the biggest events in the world, not only in prestige but also in attendance. It is expected that there will be more than 10 million people in Paris, France for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Not only are there thousands of athletes, but each nation sends a group of delegates. There are also Olympic officials, spectators, media personnel, and more. With 10 million or more people converging on a place that had a Dengue fever outbreak less than a year ago, it’s natural to wonder if Dengue will impact the 2024 Summer Olympics.

French government officials are actively working to ensure that the Olympics don’t get derailed by a virus once again.

One of the first steps that they’ve been taking for months involves monitoring the Olympic Village, the location where the athletes are housed during the games, as well as the competition sites. Officials are working diligently to look for any mosquitoes in the area that carry the Dengue virus.

While we know that the 2020 games were postponed until 2021, the precedent for this sort of action was set a few years earlier.

The 2016 Winter Olympics were awarded to Brazil, where mosquitoes are more prevalent than they typically are in Paris. In fact, the same species of mosquito that carries the Dengue virus carries the Zika virus, which threatened the 2016 games.

The biggest difference between the 2024 Games and the Winter Olympics in 2016 involved the climate. While Brazil’s winters are mild, the fact remains that mosquitoes are more prevalent in the summer than they are in the winter, which largely contributed to there not being an outbreak in 2016 during the Olympics.

French officials, along with Olympic officials, are working to identify potential breeding areas that mosquitoes carrying the Dengue virus would be drawn to.

According to experts, Aedes mosquitoes, which are the virus-carrying species that was linked to the 2016 Zika virus as well as the 2023 Dengue outbreak, need only 30ml of open water to lay as many as 200 eggs.

With this in mind, officials from a number of government agencies, medical personnel, and Olympic committee members are actively seeking out areas that may prove attractive to these mosquitoes.

What It All Means

Will these actions be enough to prevent a super-spreader event from derailing the 2024 Olympic Games? That remains to be seen.

The COVID-19 pandemic should not be used as the barometer against which we measure the September 2023 Dengue outbreak, though. The global pandemic that we saw a few years ago was unprecedented and airborne, making it a completely different type of virus than Dengue fever.

The best comparison that we have access to is the Zika virus which was a source of worry at the 2016 Winter Olympics. Thanks to the vigilance of Brazil’s government and the Olympic committee, the 2016 Winter Olympics were unaffected by the Zika virus, and there were no reported cases.

The vigilance being exhibited by French officials and the Olympic Committee is encouraging, and we should not assume that the Olympics will be impacted by Dengue fever.

Delegates, athletes, media personnel, and others have been in Paris for weeks now, and at this point, there have been no reported Dengue cases. Ideally, this trend will continue and the world will be treated to another unforgettable Olympic Games.