France reports nearly 200 cases of cholera in Mayotte June 21, 2024

Ana Cunha-Busch
Jun 20, 2024
1 min read

With the help of a translator-coordinator from an association, an elderly woman decided to come and be vaccinated against cholera during a prevention day organized by teams of French health authorities. In M'Tsangamouji, City stade district, Mayotte, on May 22, 2024. MAÏWENN LE GOFF

By AFP - Agence France Presse

France reports nearly 200 cases of cholera in Mayotte

Paris reported on Friday almost 200 cases of cholera on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, which is struggling to contain the deadly epidemic.

"On June 18, 2024, 193 cases of cholera were reported in Mayotte," France's SPF public health agency said in its weekly update.

Of these, 172 were locally acquired cases, while 21 were in people infected abroad, in the neighboring archipelago of Comoros, and countries on the African continent.

Cholera is an infectious disease that usually causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle cramps. It spreads easily in unsanitary conditions.

Mayotte, which is home to around 320,000 people, reported its first cases of locally acquired cholera at the end of April.

Two people have died since the epidemic began, one of them a three-year-old girl.

The SPF warned that there was a particularly high risk of transmission in disadvantaged neighborhoods "as long as access to drinking water and basic sanitation is unsatisfactory".

The French authorities have been criticized for failing to guarantee access to drinking water to prevent a cholera epidemic in their overseas territory.

President Emmanuel Macron called for cholera to be "consigned to the past" when he organized a summit on Thursday on vaccine production in Africa.

Many parts of Africa have recently recorded fatal outbreaks of cholera, which has highlighted the shortage of local vaccine production.

The Comoros Islands, which have been affected by a cholera epidemic over the past four months, have recorded 134 deaths and more than 8,700 cases, according to a report published by local authorities this month.

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