what we know about the health situation in Mayotte, where the number of cases is increasing

The opening of a second “cholera unit” was announced in this overseas department. The number of confirmed cases now stands at 26 since mid-March.

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 28, a reinforced system, “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 this start of the cholera epidemic.

A first case recorded in mid-March

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 rampant since the start 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.

Vaccination and screening operations

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. “Vaccination operations have been organized on the ground for several days.”, continues the ARS. 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”.

The LR deputy for Mayotte, Mansour Kamardine, insists on this point: he demands “a general vaccination plan (voluntary vaccination) accessible to all, particularly children and vulnerable people”. “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”, he is alarmed. In a message on X, he urges the government to take “urgent measures”.

Mansour Kamardine would like to point out that “the entire territory of Mayotte is still subject to restrictions on access to running water”. However, as epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux points out, “epidemic outbreaks are mainly caused by the ingestion of contaminated water”.

Dispensaries closed awaiting reinforcements

Faced with the increase in the number of cases, the health situation is deteriorating at high speed. On Sunday, the Mayotte hospital center announced that the first “cholera unit”, capable of accommodating a maximum of 14 people, was saturated. In order to welcome new patients, the establishment took the decision “to open from today a second ‘cholera unit’ within the Dzoumogné reference medical center”.

However, the director general of the ARS acknowledged to AFP that “the situation at the Mayotte hospital center, in terms of human resources, remains very critical, particularly in the emergency room”. The region actually lacks caregivers. The hospital must therefore concentrate its current workforce “on care related to cholera”, underlines the ARS, which announces the closure of all dispensaries, with the exception of those in Jacaranda and M’tsapere, “waiting for the arrival of further reinforcements”.