Bora Bora, September 22, 2022 – The Department of Health is currently deploying a filariasis prevalence survey in Bora Bora among CP and CE1 students at Faanui elementary school. Samples will be taken to detect the possible presence of the disease. At the same time, health professionals held an information meeting on this tropical disease. This campaign is part of the health program developed in the long term to eradicate the disease from the territory.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the Polynesian Health Department and the General Directorate of Education and Teaching (DGEE) have set up a school prevalence survey, a real awareness campaign among the population on the effects of lymphatic filariasis, a now rare disease, more commonly known as elephantiasis. On Tuesday, Émilie, a nurse at the Bora Bora dispensary, was at Faanui elementary school to launch this campaign with parents of CP and CE1 classes at the Pearl of the Pacific. Under the benevolent gaze of Adèle, director of the establishment, around thirty parents of students and a few teachers came to listen to the health professional. She started this meeting by explaining that Filariasis is a disease contracted by mosquito bites. It can occur years later, that is to say that for ten years, the subject may have no symptoms, then, all of a sudden, see a ganglion appear in the armpits or in the groin. “