Cholera continues its route of contamination. 21 new cases of cholera were identified in the territory between May 23 and 29, bringing to 125 the total number of cases recorded in the department since March 18, 2024.
Among these cases, 106 were acquired locally And 19 cases were imported Comoros or countries on the African continent. Of all 125 confirmed cases, 12 serious cases required intensive care and 2 deaths were recorded.
A fourth Source of contamination was detected in Cavani. In Mayotte, four outbreaks of cholera contamination have been identified, three of which are still active. The first outbreak would be located in two districts of Koungou, where 71 cases were identified, a district of M’tsangamouji, where 16 cases were recorded and a district of Passaaïnty, where 12 cases were contaminated. The fourth outbreak concerns a family home, located in Cavani, but “without traffic in the neighborhood” at this stage, according to Public Health France. “Despite an active search for cases carried out more widely in Cavani (…) no circulation outside this family home has been detected in the neighborhood for the moment,” specifies Public Health France.
Rivers, on the radars of health authorities. The health authorities specified that of the 16 cases detected in Mtsangamouji and the 12 cases recorded in Passamaïnty, “almost all of the people” concerned declared using surface water, such as rivers, for food or drinking purposes. ‘hygiene. Furthermore, an isolated case detected in Chirongui last week could be linked to this epidemic outbreak. However, the investigations carried out did not make it possible to establish an epidemiological link “between the outbreaks of Koungou and Mtsangamouji, nor with an imported case” declared Public Health France.
A health context not to be taken lightly. During a press conference on April 26, the Prefect and the director of the ARS were reassuring, even slightly worried, about the health context. Since then, health, epidemiological and social analyzes of recorded cholera cases show that people affected by cholera live mainly in precarious neighborhoods with difficulties in accessing drinking water and poor sanitation, initially of the spread of the disease. According to Public Health France, in these neighborhoods, the vast majority of cases reported using river water for their daily needs. The progression of cholera in the department of Mayotte, where more than half of the population lives in precarious housing, often without household connections to drinking water, without wastewater disposal, and where latrines can be shared, would expose Mayotte, according to epidemiologists, “has a risk of local transmission throughout the territory. »
Mathilde Hangard
