No plague in Seychelles |19 October 2017

The Ministry of Health has announced that there is no plague in Seychelles.

The announcement was made by the commissioner for public health, Dr Jude Gedeon , during a press conference yesterday morning at the Seychelles Hospital. Blood samples of all patients admitted in hospital for treatment, including for the main index case, sent to Institut Pasteur Paris, France, have been confirmed negative. The results of the confirmatory tests were received Tuesday night. But all patients will return in four weeks’ time for further serology tests.

“This gives us comfort. We are happy that those tests are negative, which means that we don’t have plague in Seychelles. We are also happy that we have been able to respond rapidly in case those cases could have turned out to be positive as all necessary actions were done,” Dr Gedeon noted.

The one thousand or so people who were under surveillance can now carry on with their normal life as they do not have plague as no one is carrying the bacteria.

As of yesterday, all persons who were still on passive surveillance have completed their time and those who were and are still on antibiotics can stop.

All the patients who were isolated on the D’Offay Ward have now been discharged, without posing any further risk.

The admitted persons, including those in the second line, were on antibiotics for seven days.

Given this situation, Dr Gedeon noted that the surveillance measure is still ongoing at the airport and the port as part of active surveillance.

Four Seychellois and one American are being admitted at the Perseverance military academy isolation centre. They arrived on Tuesday through Mauritius from Madagascar. They are well and will remain there until October 24 but the American left Seychelles yesterday.

Three other Seychellois nationals who returned via Nairobi a week ago were also released to go home yesterday. This is also the case for two Australians who were also admitted at the Perseverance military academy isolation centre.

Dr Gedeon is also launching an appeal against stigmatisation towards those involved directly with the plague situation.

“It is very important for people to understand that all persons admitted to Seychelles hospital do not have plague. People are always stigmatised when it concerns infectious diseases but those people are not infectious and they will not infect anyone. So we must stop this kind of stigmatization,” Dr Gedeon said.

Meanwhile the plague outbreak in Madagascar persists and is expanding into new areas. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners are on the field doing active contact tracing and providing prophylaxis. About 3000 current contacts are on prophylaxis.

Meanwhile, Mauritius has reported a suspected case but the person has since been tested negative and was discharged.

All countries in the region are on heightened surveillance and have issued travel advisory. The Public Health Authority (PHA) continues to emphasise the advisory to discourage people from travelling to Madagascar for the time being.

Anyone who has information that a Seychellois national is planning to travel to Madagascar should send a report to the PHA or refer to CDCU (Communicable Disease Control Unit).

Hotline 141 is active and people can call for information and advice.

Also present at the press conference yesterday were Dr Jastin Bibi, in charge of surveillance and response unite; Dr Danny Lounge, chief executive of the Health Care Agency; Dr Kenneth Henriette, director of health services; Leon Biscornet, lab technician and Dr Teniin  Gakuruh, acting WHO liaison officer.