2024-09-30 15:22:28
A man drinks water from a wastewater stream in a makeshift camp where migrants live, at the Cavani stadium, in Mamoudzou, on the French island of Mayotte, February 15, 2024. JULIEN DE ROSA/ AFP
With the appearance last March of the first cases of cholera imported from East Africa, Mayotte feared an additional major crisis. After Covid-19, the long and painful water shortages caused by failing infrastructure, the dams erected by part of the population shouting their fed up with daily violence…, the French department located in the Mozambique Channel will ultimately not have experienced the feared outbreak of cases, which would have led to an embolism of its healthcare system already in great pain due to a shortage of caregivers. The last recorded patient dates back to July 12. An imported case. And “no indigenous traffic has been detected in the department since July 8”specifies Public health France in its situation update of September 19. The results of this cholera epidemic show a total of 221 cases, including five deaths attributable to the bacteria and two partially attributable.
The regional health agency (ARS) of Mayotte is therefore preparing to announce the official end of the epidemic. “With due caution, observes Doctor Sergio Albarello, director of the ARS, due to the risks of importing cases. » The neighboring Comoros are, in fact, seeing the appearance of new patients, while the archipelago had managed to control, at the beginning of August, an epidemic that arrived from Tanzania at the beginning of February, which left 152 dead.
Since mid-September, twelve new patients have been treated, indicated on September 26, the Ministry of Health of the Union of the Comoros. These are adults from the northern region of Grande Comore, in Mitsamiouli. According to the Comorian press, three deaths linked to cholera have been recorded. This is denied by the Ministry of Health.
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A secure area to accommodate patients has been set up at Samba-Nkouni hospital. “The situation is not currently alarminghowever, estimates Doctor Yacine Mohamed Saidi, pediatrician at El-Maarouf hospital in Moroni, over the phone. We have implemented systematic screenings because we are facing an epidemic of gastroenteritis which mainly affects children. But we did not detect cholera among them. »
Regional health risk
Faced with this regional health risk, the Mahorese authorities are maintaining the border control system to detect possible cases of cholera. “The strategy put in place to limit the spread of the bacteria in Mayotte has paid off, by putting human and material resources into access to water and preventive protection through the vaccine”welcomes the director of the ARS. More than one hundred and twenty water pipes have been installed in the neighborhoods most affected by shortages and lack of infrastructure, where, due to lack of being connected to a distribution network, families will draw water from rivers. surrounding areas, with the risk of being contaminated by dirty water.
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