The government wants to give peace of mind. Although the cholera epidemic in Mayotte left one dead, the Minister responsible for Health, Frédéric Valletoux, stated on Thursday that this “increase” was “contained.” “There is no explosion, but that does not mean it will stop overnight,” the minister told reporters, on the sidelines of a visit to the island’s university hospital.
This acute digestive infection has so far affected 65 people in Mayotte, according to figures provided by the minister to RTL this Friday. It caused the first death on the island on Wednesday, a three-year-old girl, according to the Regional Health Authority. It began in March with imported cases, most of them from neighboring Comoros, where the epidemic has spread since the beginning of the year and where many immigrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo transit to Mayotte.
Is there a risk of explosion in Mayotte?
“At the moment there is only one focus,” the Kirson district in Koungou, Frédéric Valletoux told RTL, while noting a “slow increase in the number of people affected.” The epidemic “is under control” and “limited”, thanks to the “intervention of health services in terms of vaccination, care and support for those affected,” said the minister delegate.
The cholera health monitoring data “unfortunately are published at an irregular rate by the ARS of Mayotte, which prevents us from verifying the validity of the minister’s statements,” epidemiologist Antoine tells BFMTV.com. “It is clear, however, that cholera is an infectious disease that we know how to control, but this requires resources and strong political will, both in terms of vaccination and water sanitation on the island and its surroundings,” adds the author. of. Tell me! Better health at any age. (Robert Laffont).
Vaccines, water distributions…
In Mayotte, so far more than 3,700 people have been vaccinated in the Kirson district alone, he stated Fédéric Valletoux Friday. “We have stock today on the island. “Next week, 6,000 possible vaccines will arrive and in greater volumes for the beginning of summer.”
Furthermore, although cholera is transmitted, in particular, through water contaminated by the bacteria, “the State will continue to distribute as much water as necessary” and “water ramps have been installed in some neighborhoods,” said the minister delegate.
An epidemic that will be “difficult” to “stop”
But the island faces many difficulties, for example in terms of the health system. Mayotte only has one hospital and the teams “suffer because they are permanently subjected to extremely tense rhythms for a long time,” acknowledged minister Frédéric Valletoux.
Furthermore, the majority of cases reported in Mayotte are imported from the Comoros, “with which Mayotte maintains legal or illegal exchanges lasting several days,” emphasizes Antoine Flahault. “This very poor country, bordering the French department of Mayotte, does not have the means, on its own, to vaccinate its entire population nor, above all, to carry out the water sanitation works that would allow it to be resolved in a sustainable way. this persistent health crisis,” continues the professor of public health at the University of Geneva.
Questioned on Thursday on RTL, Benjamín Davido, infectious disease specialist at the Garches hospital (Hauts-de-Seine), stressed that “to turn off the tap, we would also have to address, in quotes, what is happening in the Comoros.” The current epidemic will be “very difficult” to “stop, and we run the risk of ending up with a very rapid increase in cases, even several more deaths,” he warned.
What risk for the metropolis?
Could the epidemic reach mainland France? In mainland France, this disease has become very rare and is mainly reported by travelers returning from infected countries or areas: there has been an average of zero to two cases per year since the early 2000s, according to Public Health France.
You have to go back to 1986 to find evidence of an outbreak in mainland France, mainly of imported cases from North Africa, with more than thirty cases and a 10-year-old child who died after a stay in Algeria. The Global Task Force for Cholera Control, which brings together NGOs, academic institutes and UN agencies, emphasizes that although “cholera was eradicated in developed countries decades ago, it continues to affect many, disproportionately affects communities poorest and most vulnerable.
Furthermore, epidemiologist Antoine Flahault is categorical: despite the current episode in Mayotte, “there is no risk of cholera spreading epidemically in mainland France or even in Réunion.” In mainland France, “all the health control that revolves around (cholera, Editor’s note), whether through PCR, diagnostic and isolation methods, means that these cases are quickly identified, isolated, controlled and treated,” infectious disease specialist Benjamín Davido told RTL.
This minimal risk also has to do with the mode of transmission of cholera, linked mainly to the absorption of contaminated water or food. “The cholera bacillus has no animal reservoir, it survives in the environment (a bit like the polio virus), we have an effective vaccine and we have been able to eliminate the risk of a cholera epidemic in all rich countries thanks to sanitation of the water,” explains Antoine Flahault.
And plead: “Isn’t it time to put an end to cholera once and for all, when this disease continues to cause several million cases a year and several tens of thousands of completely avoidable deaths around the world?”
Source: BFM TV
