65 instances of cholera recorded, however an epidemic “under control” | EUROtoday

Published on : 10/05/2024 – 09:43Modified : 10/05/2024 – 11:01

3 minutes

The cholera epidemic in Mayotte has to date affected 65 individuals, together with a three-year-old lady who died on Wednesday, the Minister of Health Frédéric Valletoux introduced on Friday, touring to the island, the place 3,700 individuals are affected. I’ve simply been vaccinated, in keeping with him.

There is “for the moment only one outbreak”, the Kirson district in Koungou, he declared on RTL, whereas noting a “slow rise in the level of people affected”.

The epidemic “is under control” and “circumscribed”, because of “intervention by health services on vaccination, care, support for those affected”, specified Frédéric Valletoux.

Read additionallyA 3-year-old little one dies of cholera in Mayotte, first demise because the begin of the epidemic

The epidemic began “on March 18” within the a hundred and first French division positioned within the Indian Ocean, recalled the minister, with the primary instances “arriving from the neighboring Comoros”, the place the epidemic is surging and has already induced 98 deaths, in keeping with the most recent official report.

“The vaccination strategy for cholera is not to vaccinate all-out and blindly”, however “in stages”, with vaccination of these near these affected and individuals who have been in touch with them within the final 48 hours, defined the minister.

The “difficulties” of the well being system on the island

In Mayotte, greater than 3,700 individuals have been vaccinated to date within the Kirson district alone, he mentioned. “We have stocks. There are around 7,000 vaccines on the island today. 6,000 vaccines will arrive next week. We still have possible doses and in larger volumes for the start of the 'summer”.

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.

Coming from mainland France, 86 reservists, nurses and doctors arrived on the ground, he added.

Frédéric Valletoux recognized the difficulties facing the health system and caregivers on the island, which has only one hospital and five emergency doctors, for some 310,000 inhabitants according to official population figures, probably largely underestimated. .

“The teams here are suffering because they have been constantly subjected to extremely tense rhythms for a long time,” he famous.

“Work” to extend and modernize the hospital, for 242 million euros, “will begin in a number of weeks”, he said, to which is added the commitment of the public authorities “to construct a second hospital in one other a part of the island”.

With AFP