Hundreds of people have fallen ill after drinking tap water.
The Haute-Loire prefecture and the regional health agency announced on Thursday, September 12, that 656 people had contracted gastroenteritis after drinking tap water. Two towns were affected: Séauve-sur-Semène and Saint-Didier-en-Velay, where 13% of their residents fell ill with symptoms including abdominal pain, nausea, fever and vomiting. At the beginning of September, they paraded through pharmacies and waiting rooms of health centers, reports Progress.
Although they were often only sick for 24 hours, the origin of this contamination is intriguing. “The large number of sick people whose only exposure was the consumption of distributed water points towards the hypothesis of contamination of the water network,” explains a joint press release from the ARS, the Haute-Loire prefecture and Santé publique France. The two municipalities are supplied by the same water resource and the same treatment plant.
Research into the origin of the contamination is still ongoing.
Santé publique France conducted a survey from September 3 to 10 in which 145 sick people reported having noticed a problem in the water, whether in terms of color, taste or smell, towards the end of August. In September, the number of cases decreased and therefore points to a “probably one-off” poisoning that occurred in the last days of August, more precisely during the weekend of August 31.
The latest results show that water can once again “be consumed safely”. Analyses are still underway to find the germ(s) causing this epidemic. “Investigations are underway by government services to identify the cause of this pollution and to take all necessary measures to prevent a possible recurrence”, assures the prefecture. Patients are advised to apply hygiene rules to limit any human-to-human transmission.