France has a "headache" dealing with the problem of bedbugs.

France is on alert for a bed bug outbreak as reports of bed bugs appearing in many places are on the rise, now considered a potential major public health problem.

This issue has gone from being a joke to becoming a controversial political issue in France, after many people reported seeing these blood-sucking insects in airports, trains, the Paris subway and even cinemas.

Concerns are growing as France prepares to host the Rugby World Cup and Paris prepares to welcome athletes and fans from around the world for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Two schools, one in Marseille and one in Villefranche-sur-Saone, a suburb of Lyon in southeastern France, have been hit hard by bedbugs and will be closed for several days for cleaning, local authorities said.

Transport Minister Clement Beaune said last week he would work with relevant agencies to tackle the bedbug problem.

French Government spokesman Olivier Veran said an inter-ministerial meeting will be held on October 6 to find a solution to the problem.

The head of President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party in the French parliament, Sylvain Maillard, said a cross-party bill would be introduced in early December to combat the "scourge" of bedbugs. He said the ruling party and its allies had decided to make it a priority, and called on the opposition right and left to come up with proposals to combat the bedbug epidemic.

Meanwhile, on France Inter radio, Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau expressed concern about the risk of people being cheated by cleaning companies out of 2,000-3,000 euros to spray insecticide at home, and condemned epidemic control units in France for abusing this issue.

Bedbugs largely disappeared in the 1950s, but have reappeared in recent decades, largely due to high population density and increased public transportation.

According to statistics, 10% of all French households reported having problems with bed bugs in the past few years and had to spend hundreds, even thousands of euros to protect against these blood-sucking insects.

Minh Hoa (t/h according to Vietnam+, Dan Tri)

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