65 cases identified and 3,700 people vaccinated, announces the Minister of Health

According to Frédéric Valletoux, there is “for the moment only one home” in the archipelago, in the Kirson district in Koungou. On Wednesday, a three-year-old girl died of the disease.

To date, 65 people have been affected by the cholera epidemic in Mayotte, announced Friday May 10, the Minister Delegate in charge of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, traveling to the archipelago. According to him, 3,700 people have been vaccinated. There is no “for the moment only one home”the Kirson district in Koungou, he specified on RTL, while noting a “slow rise in the level of people affected”.

The epidemic started “March 18” in the 101st French department, located in the Indian Ocean, recalled the minister. The first patients are “arrived from the Comoros” neighboring areas, where the epidemic is flaring and has already caused 98 deaths, according to the latest official report. On Wednesday, a three-year-old girl died of the disease in Mayotte. But the minister assured that the epidemic was “under control” And “circumscribed”.

A reinforcement of 86 caregivers

“The vaccination strategy for cholera is not to vaccinate everywhere and blindly”but “stepwise”limiting itself to the entourage of those affected and to people who have been in contact with them in the last 48 hours, explained the minister. “We have stocks. There are around 7,000 vaccines on the island today, 6,000 vaccines will arrive next weekhe detailed. We still have possible doses and in larger volumes for the start of summer.”

Frédéric Valletoux recognized the difficulties facing the health system and caregivers on the archipelago, which has only one hospital and five emergency doctors for some 310,000 inhabitants, according to the official population count, which is probably largely underestimated. . Coming from France, 86 reservists, nurses and doctors arrived on the ground, he added.

Furthermore, while cholera is transmitted in particular via water contaminated by the bacteria, “the State will continue to distribute water as much as necessary” And “water ramps have been installed in certain neighborhoods”specified Frédéric Valletoux.