“Shortage of doctors” and “water cuts”: these warnings are displayed on plasticized sheets on the gates of the Kahani healthcare center in Mayotte, summarizing an alarming situation, at a time when the archipelago is experiencing its worst drought episode in a quarter of a century.
Less than 20 km from Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, the healthcare workers in Kahani struggle to handle the influx of patients.
One of them warns, anonymously, at the entrance: “There are too many people currently. Try to come back this afternoon. And there’s no point going to the Sada clinic (8 km away), there are no doctors there, they are here. Either you wait or you go to Mamoudzou.”
Despite immense difficulties in accessing clean water, many residents in the surrounding areas are in need of medical consultations.
Only a 10-minute drive further north, a 15-year-old girl named Housnati describes the situation in her slum in Combani: “Here, the majority of children are sick…”
As is the case for nearly a third of the population of Mayotte, her makeshift neighborhood is not connected to running water.
The only access to precious water for her neighborhood is a hole dug on the outskirts of the houses, in which stagnant dark water is found. Mosquitoes and larvae have found refuge there. Yet, this is where everyone comes to get their supplies.
“This is the second tank dug by the residents. The first one is empty,” laments Housnati. While waiting for the rain to fill this reservoir, families count the days and the marks on their children’s skin.
In his clinic in Pamandzi, in Petite-Terre, Dr. Ahmed Abdou Mohamed is well aware of these white marks that multiply on children’s bodies. It is a dermatological disease probably caused by poor hygiene resulting from the water shortage.
“At the moment, one in five patients comes to consult for a disorder more or less related to the lack of water,” the doctor assures over the phone.
Overall, the inhabitants of Mayotte – around 310,000 people – are living according to restrictions since early September.
In the long run, this physician fears the development of serious diseases such as “typhoid or cholera”.
– “Overflowing with babies” –
On this point, the director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), Olivier Brahic, insists to AFP: “To this day, there is no resurgence or epidemic outbreak of water-related diseases. There have been no reported cases of cholera.”
Regarding typhoid fever, “we had 123 cases last year compared to 13 since the beginning of this year. Assuming that the water crisis started in mid-August, we have had four sporadic cases.”
Referring to the lack of healthcare workers, Mr. Brahic acknowledges that “the situation is sometimes complicated in the services,” while indicating that “personnel reinforcements have accelerated since June.” “We aim to have reinforcements until the end of January 2024,” he says.
In the emergency department of the Mayotte Hospital Center in Mamoudzou, the shortage of healthcare workers, against the backdrop of the water crisis, is challenging.
“The service is overflowing with babies with diarrhea and vomiting,” summarizes an anonymous emergency physician.
In the intensive care unit, another healthcare worker, who also requests not to be named, affirms that patients “arrive at an advanced stage of dehydration.” He mentions the case of a baby who “will end up with irreversible neurological damage.”
The director of the ARS acknowledges “cases of dehydration due to acute gastroenteritis that arrive with a delayed care,” but he emphasizes that “no infant has died due to lack of water, contrary to the +fake news+ that may have circulated.”
And the gastroenteritis epidemic “at this time is strictly nothing unusual,” he notes.
For Dr. Ahmed Abdou Mohamed, the urgency is already there and Mayotte is already facing a “major public health problem”. According to him, “the distribution of bottled water must be accelerated,” and it should be made available to everyone from mid-November.
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2023-10-26 08:07:43
