The number of cholera cases in Mayotte, a French department located in the Indian Ocean, has doubled. It now stands at 26, compared to thirteen two days previously, the authorities announced on Sunday April 28. A new “cholera unit” has been opened in a medical center.
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Faced with this rapid increase in cholera cases, the authorities are strengthening the measures taken so far to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Mayotte and the prefecture announce the establishment of a reinforced system to ensure the care of all infected people. Because, if taken care of in time, the patient suffering from cholera can recover without having any after-effects.
After the saturation of a first unit dedicated to cholera at the Mayotte Hospital Center, which can accommodate fourteen people, a second center opened this Monday within the Dzoumogné medical center.
The Mayotte Hospital Center finds itself in a “ critical “, ” in terms of human resources […] especially in emergencies », According to the general director of the ARS of Mayotte, Olivier Brahic.
On Friday, the first three cases of “indigenous” cholera were identified in Koungou, north of Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte. Until then, ten imported cases had been recorded since mid-March in people arriving, among others, from Comoros neighbors, an archipelago 70 kilometers away, where the epidemic is flaring.
Read alsoFrance: first three cases of “indigenous” cholera identified in Mayotte
“ Vaccination operations »
“ Vaccination operations are also organized on the ground », Specifies the ARS, which is continuing, at the same time, its health raids in order to ensure wide dissemination of recommendations and to direct people towards vaccination and screening systems.
“ The epidemic is spreading without real control in the neighborhoods of the urban area of Mamoudzou-Koungou which is densely populated, particularly in the slums devoid of the most basic public sanitation. », Alarmed in a press release the Les Républicains (LR, right) deputy from Mayotte, Mansour Kamardine. He also recalls that “ the entire territory of Mayotte is still subject to restrictions on access to running water “.
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Cholera is an acute form of diarrhea that can kill within hours and is contracted by bacteria usually transmitted through contaminated water or food.
The cholera epidemic affects several countriesAfrica. According to the World Health Organization, 26,000 cases and 7,000 deaths have been reported in ten countries on the continent. Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the majority of asylum seekers arriving in Mayotte come from, are among them.