The cholera epidemic in Mayotte has affected 65 people, including a 3-year-old child who died on Wednesday, announced Friday May 10 the Minister responsible for health, Frédéric Valletoux, traveling in the archipelago. He said 3,700 people had been vaccinated. There is no “for the moment only one home”the Kirson district in Koungou, he declared on RTLwhile noting a “slow rise in the level of people affected”.
The epidemic “is under control” And “circumscribed”thanks to “an intervention by health services on vaccination, care and support for those affected”assured Mr. Valletoux.
The epidemic started “March 18” in the 101e French department, located in the Indian Ocean, recalled the minister, with first cases “arrived from the Comoros” neighboring areas, where the epidemic has already killed 98 people, according to the latest official report.
“The vaccination strategy for cholera is not to vaccinate in all directions and blindly”but “in stages”with vaccination of those close to those affected and people who have been in contact with them in the last forty-eight hours, explained the minister.
Only one hospital for 310,000 inhabitants
In Mayotte, more than 3,700 people were vaccinated in the Kirson district alone, he assured. “We have some stocks. Today there are approximately 7,000 vaccines on the island; 6,000 vaccines arriving next week. We still have possible doses and in larger volumes for the start of summer. »
Furthermore, while cholera is transmitted in particular through 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 Mr. Valletoux.
Coming from France, 86 reservists, nurses and doctors arrived on the island, he added. Mr. Valletoux recognized the difficulties facing the local health system and caregivers. The archipelago has only one hospital and five emergency doctors, for some 310,000 inhabitants, according to official population figures, which are probably largely underestimated.
“The teams here suffer because they have been constantly subjected to extremely tense rhythms for a long time”he noted. ” Works “ extension and modernization of the hospital, for 242 million euros, must ” started[r] in a few weeks “, he said. The public authorities have also committed to “build a second hospital in another part of the island”.