Cholera: what we know about the health situation in Mayotte, where the number of cases is increasing
More“field interventions”. Faced with the increase in the number of cholera cases, the Regional Health Agency (ARS), the prefecture and the Mayotte hospital center announce, in a press release published Sunday April 28a reinforced device, “in order to ensure the care of all sick people”. In this press release, the authorities revised their assessment of the number of infected people upwards and recorded, “in total”, 26 cases “confirmed since the start of the alert”. Franceinfo summarizes what we know about the health situation.
In Mayotte, the first case of cholera was detected on March 19, in a person coming from the Comoros, a neighboring archipelago. where the epidemic has been going on since the beginning of the year. This acute form of diarrhea is spread by bacteria, usually through contaminated water or food. The disease can kill in a few hours: on the island of Anjouan, in the Comoros, four deaths were recorded in one day, April 10. But when the patient is taken care of in time, he can recover “without having any after-effects”, epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux, cholera specialist, explains to franceinfo. This is what happened for the first case recorded in Mayotte. “Our response strategy enabled its rapid detection and treatment. All measures are being taken to stop the spread,” Marie Guévenoux, the Minister Delegate in charge of Overseas Territories, then declared, on.
However, the measures taken did not prevent the arrival of new cases: shortly after the first one was identified, ten imported cases were identified in people coming from the Comoros. The disease then developed in Mayotte. On Friday, the first three cases of indigenous cholera, that is to say patients who were infected without leaving the island, were confirmed in Koungou, north of Mamoudzou. Two days later, the number of confirmed cases jumped to 26.
So, “with the aim of containing and reducing the risk” in the commune of Koungou, the ARS announces, in its joint press release with the prefecture and the hospital of Mayotte, to have “strengthened its field interventions” and created a screening and orientation center, set up on Saturday. Concretely, the cholera screening centers operate like those that existed for Covid-19: the people who go there carry out rapid antigen tests. If they are positive, they must do a PCR test in a laboratory, specifies the ARS of Mayotte to franceinfo.
“Vaccination operations have been organized on the ground for several days.”, continues the ARS in its press release. At the same time, it sets up health patrols, “in order to ensure wide dissemination of recommendations and to direct people towards vaccination and screening systems”.
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- Source of information and images “francetvinfo“
