The number of cholera cases in Mayotte, a French overseas department, is now approaching 200, according to a new report released this Friday, June 21, by the French health agency.
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“ As of June 18, 2024, 193 cases of cholera have been reported in Mayotte ”, including 172 acquired locally and 21 “ imported from Comoros or countries on the African continent », Indicates Public Health France (SPF) in a weekly epidemiological update.
Over a week, 27 new cases were reported, including 17 on June 18 alone, in a new focus of the epidemic located in Doujani, in ” day after gatherings on the occasion of[une] religious celebration », Adds the agency. Mayotte currently has three active centers of cholera transmission, all in the commune of Mamoudzou.
Since the start of the epidemic, two deaths, including that of a three-year-old girl, have been recorded in the archipelago of around 320,000 inhabitants.
“ The ongoing community transmission of cholera in the commune of Mamoudzou, and the risk of importing new cases ofAfrica or the Comoros, where the situation is still not under control, particularly in Anjouan, expose Mayotte to a risk of local transmission in the short and long term throughout the territory », SPF alert. This risk is “ particularly high in the most precarious neighborhoods, as long as access to drinking water and sanitation is not satisfactory there “.
The neighboring Comoros archipelago has been affected by the cholera epidemic for four months. It recorded 134 deaths, including 116 in Anjouan, and 8,734 cumulative cases, according to a report made public on June 13 by local health authorities who also announced the launch of a vaccination campaign in Anjouan.
A ” cholera vaccine production line could be deployed in Africa »
Emmanuel Macron called on Thursday June 20 to “ send cholera to the past » during the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation in Paris, as an epidemic hits « hard half of Africa ” and that the French department of Mayotte, neighboring the Comoros, is also ” touch “.
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The French president announced that a “ cholera vaccine production line could be deployed in Africa » by the South African laboratory Biovac whose investments will be supported by “ priority way » by a new financial mechanism. So far, South Korea’s EuBiologics is the only supplier of oral vaccines. The French Sanofi stopped its production at the end of 2022.
France has also been the subject of criticism for not having taken the necessary measures, mainly for access to drinking water, in order to avoid a cholera epidemic on its own territory, in Mayotte. Cholera “ result[ant] ingesting contaminated water or food by mouthnoted the Pasteur Institute. The incubation – from a few hours to a few days – is followed by violent diarrhea and vomiting, without fever. In the absence of treatment, in its most severe manifestations, cholera is one of the most rapidly fatal infectious diseases. “.