Gonzalo Fuentes / REUTERS
This is an imported case, but the situation is taken very seriously by the health authorities, while the island finds itself in a precarious health situation after the damage from Cyclone Chido in mid-December.
It was one of the risks monitored like milk on fire by the health authorities: a first case of cholera was identified in Mayotte, which is still licking its wounds after the passage of cyclone Chido, which hit the island of the Indian Ocean on December 14.
« Initial investigations conclude that a case of cholera was imported on a flight from continental Africa »indicate the prefecture of Mayotte and the Regional Health Agency in a press release released this Sunday.
The case was identified on Saturday evening, and immediately transported to the Mayotte Hospital Center a few hours after arriving on the island. « A specific treatment circuit for cholera has been set up within the CHM »adds the press release.
-Disinfection and preventive vaccination
The ARS has also redeployed the action plan developed in 2024, to « limit the risks of spreading the disease in the territory ». On the one hand, a team interviewed the patient on Saturday evening to understand how he had been infected, and identify his contact cases or people who may have been infected at the same time. Sunday morning, « a team was deployed to the case's residential area in order to continue epidemiological investigations, disinfect the home, conduct environmental analyzes and disseminate health recommendations to people in the neighborhood ». A preventive vaccination campaign was also carried out around the patient's living area.
The authorities are calling on the population to be very vigilant, « observe hygiene measures (consumption of controlled water, hand washing) to avoid any acquisition or transmission of the disease » and, in the event of acute watery diarrhea and traveling to an area where cholera is circulating, to isolate yourself, hydrate with drinking water and report immediately to 15.
The island is just emerging from a cholera epidemic which, between March and July 2024, affected more than 200 people and led to the death of at least 5 patients. The health system, already exhausted before the passage of Chido, and very affected by the cyclone, the sometimes difficult access to drinking water and the degraded wastewater network pose the risk of a resurgence of the disease. Each sick person excretes millions of bacteria, which can quickly lead to an epidemic if other people consume water or food contaminated by a sick person's stool.
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