ANKARA

France reported 10 cases of dengue fever in its southeastern town of Sainte-Cecile-les-Vignes, according to an official statement.

The first case in this series was reported by a healthcare worker on Aug. 14, which helped authorities detect an imported case and nine new autochthonous cases in the same neighborhood, the Regional Health Agency of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur said Thursday.

Authorities carried out larviciding operations in the town to eliminate possibly infected mosquitoes and thus prevent the disease from spreading.

The total number of autochthonous dengue fever cases in metropolitan France rose to 16 this year, according to broadcaster France Info.

The first autochthonous case of 2024 in the country was reported on July 8 in the southern department of Herault.

The French Public Health Agency (Sante Publique France or SPF) earlier announced that 1,031 imported cases were detected between May 1 and Aug. 13.

An “autochthonous” case refers to a person contaminated in metropolitan French territory, without having traveled in the infected areas of the world 15 days prior to the emergence of the symptoms.

The viral infection is transmitted to humans through infected mosquitoes.