The young victim lived in the commune of Koungou, “where several cases had been identified in recent weeks” according to the Mayotte Regional Health Agency. Since mid-March, 58 cases of illness have been detected in the overseas department.
A little over a month after the identification of a first case of cholera in Mayotte, the authorities announced that the disease killed a 3-year-old child this Wednesday, May 8. The boy lived in the commune of Koungou, “where several cases had been identified in recent weeks”, according to the Mayotte Regional Health Agency. “The intervention teams went to the scene to treat those close to the child.”, specifies the prefecture. This first fatal case comes as the Minister of Health Frédéric Valletoux goes this Thursday, May 9 to this island in the Indian Ocean, for a long-planned two-day visit.
An epidemic has been underway since February in the Comoros – which includes Mayotte. Since mid-March, 58 cases have been identified in this overseas department. The number has increased fourfold in the space of a week. In Mayotte, the first cases “indigenous”, diagnosed in patients who had not left the French island in the Indian Ocean, appeared at the end of April.
Cholera is a toxic infection, caused by the ingestion of water or food contaminated by bacteria – or even the stools of contaminated individuals. “High population concentrations, associated with poor environmental hygiene, favor the appearance and development of cholera epidemics”, explains Public Health France. The disease manifests itself mainly by diarrhea and severe vomiting, causing severe dehydration. “80 to 90% of episodes are mild or moderately severe,” However, the agency specifies.
Sanitation and hygiene measures have allowed the disease to disappear in mainland France, but it persists in Guyana and Mayotte, where water supply problems have lasted for many months. A protocol developed in February to prevent the spread of the disease provides for the disinfection of the patient’s home, the identification and treatment of contact cases and vaccination. “in rings”, by gradually expanding the area concerned around the home of the patient suffering from cholera.
In mainland France, this disease is mainly reported by travelers returning from infected countries or areas: there have been on average zero to two cases per year since the beginning of the 2000s, according to the Ministry of Health. We have to go back to 1986 to find traces of an outbreak in France, mainly from cases imported from North Africa, with more than thirty cases and a 10-year-old child dying after a stay in Algeria.
Global warming
As a result of climate change and the increase in conflicts, the number of cholera cases is currently exploding around the world, underlines the World Health Organization (WHO). Reported cases (only a portion of proven cases) more than doubled between 2021 and 2022 to reach 473,000, then climbed further to more than 700,000 in 2023. Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are among the most severely affected countries currently, says the WHO.
Haiti, Syria or the DRC: the list of recent cholera outbreaks shows how this disease is a marker of poverty, instability and armed conflicts. “There is a strong link between cholera transmission and inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities,” underlines the WHO. Places at risk of epidemics are typically refugee camps: humanitarian crises with the displacement of populations and difficulties in accessing drinking water considerably increase the risks.
Several oral vaccines have been developed and are recommended by the WHO for areas where cholera is endemic and during epidemics. But the multiplication of outbreaks has dangerously limited stocks and forced humanitarian organizations to reduce the number of doses administered during vaccination campaigns. In April, the WHO gave the green light to the simplified version of a vaccine, produced by the South Korean group EuBiologics, to accelerate production and replenish global stocks of anticholera serums.
Updated May 9 at 8:30 a.m.: with the addition of the visit of Minister of Health Frédéric Valletoux to Mayotte.
