AA / Tunis / Fatma Ben Amor
The cholera epidemic caused the first death in Mayotte. A three-year-old child died on Wednesday from the disease, prefectural and health authorities announced.
“A first child died today,” wrote the prefecture and the Mayotte Regional Health Agency in a joint press release relayed by the French media. And to specify: “The child lived in the Koungou district in which several cases of cholera had been identified in recent weeks.”
The first cases of cholera in Mayotte, the poorest of the French departments, located in the Indian Ocean, were recorded in mid-March among people returning from neighboring Comoros.
According to the Regional Health Agency, as of May 6, 58 cases had been identified in the overseas department. A vaccination campaign is underway and more than 4,000 people have been vaccinated to date, specifies the same Source, but the bacterial disease, triggered by the absorption of contaminated food or water, continues to gain ground, taking advantage of the precarious health infrastructure on the island.
Liot MP (Libertés, Independents, Overseas and Territories group) from Mayotte Estelle Youssouffa, reacted to this first case of death, denouncing “a collective shame, a health disaster”.
“This death of a child reminds us that cholera is a fatal disease which is taking root in a French department which is a medical desert,” regretted the MP on RTL.
Note that the French Minister of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, is expected in Mayotte on Thursday May 9 and Friday May 10, for a visit planned for several days.
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