Water is being singled out. In Haute-Loire, and more particularly in the communes of Saint-Didier-en-Velay and La Séauve-sur-Semène – many residents have reported symptoms similar to gastroenteritis. The Regional Health Agency was quickly alerted to the increase in cases.
Public Health France, in conjunction with the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Health Agency, and the Haute-Loire prefecture conducted an online survey among residents of these two municipalities in order to understand the origin of this contamination. The health services encouraged everyone in these two municipalities to respond to a questionnaire. In total, more than 900 responses were collected. The poisoning period is between Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1.
A water quality problem
The responses to the various questionnaires report that 656 or 13% of the inhabitants of the two municipalities declared characteristic symptoms of gastroenteritis (abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and fever for some of them) most of the time with resolution within 24 hours.
“The large number of sick people whose only exposure was the consumption of water distributed in the municipalities of Saint-Didier-en-Velay and La Séauve-sur-Semène points towards the hypothesis of a contamination of the water network of these two municipalities », notes the ARS. Other information reported…
Read more
Related News :