Several people from various coastal areas of Senegal, who contracted few days, an unknown skin disease, have been placed in quarantine, reports said on Thursday.
It has been in the news headlines since the beginning of the week, relegating to the background the Covid-19, which continues its downward trend. While the first cases were reported in Thiaroye-sur-mer, in the Dakar suburbs, the disease, described as “mysterious” by several newspapers, has spread inside the country, between Mbour, Joal and Saint-Louis.
The daily Liberation adds that nearly 400 patients are identified in Thiaroye-sur-mer in two days. But the governor of Dakar, Al Hassan Sall, who visited this fishing district Wednesday, revealed that only 200 people have so far been affected.
“Young people had gone fishing. On their return, their bodies present skin diseases which have even spread to their face. The phenomenon has increased since then. Yesterday night, the list we were presented with showed 82 people. Today it is more than 200 people,” he said in response to local media reports.
In addition to the face, this skin disease also affects the lips and private parts according to the testimonies of some fishermen victims. They have already been quarantined and some of them are being cared for at a local women’s center.
Fishermen are also asked to temporarily suspend their activities, in order to have perfect control of the situation.
If suspicions are already rife on an alleged pollution of the sea, the governor prefers to wait for the results of “samples” which are “carried out to determine the origin of the disease and how to treat it.”
The governor has also announced the setting up of a crisis committee under his supervision. The committee “will be based on cells, including a technique one comprising a team of doctors, but also players in fisheries, security and the environment,” he concluded.
ODL/cgd/fss/abj/APA