"I would like to point out that, all the same, we are doctors, we are not animals, and we do not put masks for nothing ", storms a doctor from Reunion filming a stock of masks covered with mold .
In front of him, several dozen FFP2 masks still neatly encased in their plastic film. Like new, but not quite, given the number of greenish halos swarming on the surface of certain fabrics.
Masks stored anywhere
No wonder since this vitiated sample comes from a " strategic, regional and historic stock that is relatively old" , points Martine Ladoucette, director of ARS, interviewed by the overseas media the 1st, " These stocks had been constituted for the protection of the NRBC risk - Nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical -, but also for the protection of the smallpox risk or of the H1-N1 risk ”.
"These masks have been stored, but we do not really know where or under what conditions," said Bertrand Boden, orthopedic surgeon and traumatologist on the island. The caregiver hastened to relay the video of his colleague on Facebook.
"It really is a complete disregard for the profession"
In addition to presenting an unpleasant appearance, this material can also jeopardize the already exposed lungs of caregivers. “It's very dangerous, you can get fungal pneumonia with these microscopic fungi. Once the spores move on the bottom of our lungs it is very difficult to remove them, " warns Bertrand Boden, contacted by phone.
" It's a joke. It is really a complete contempt for the profession, ” continues this Reunionese. He denounces an announcement effect with the unlocking of these 120,000 old masks for healthcare staff on the island: " It is something going out on television, saying that we have masks, that we will be able to act , except that no, here we have nothing ”.
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Claude Marodon, pharmacist in Saint-Denis, is one of the pharmacies who received these stocks of rotten masks on March 24: “The caregivers came en masse because they had been waiting for this for ten days and we had to show them that it was not possible. We weren't going to give them that ”
The ARS has alerted pharmacists not to distribute these stocks until the next day. Masks which can now " be thrown in the usual circuit of garbage" .
94 cases of coronavirus in Reunion
"We have the impression of being cursed, it is clear that there we have everything that is against us ", continues the pharmacist. In Reunion, at least 94 people are infected with the coronavirus. These contaminations were overwhelmingly imported by visitors returning from mainland France or from abroad. Cases that are multiplying very quickly and could quickly saturate the 112 intensive care beds on the island.
Reunion is " so far from everything, with such poverty, precariousness, promiscuity and with so many co-morbidities, a population so often cruelly deprived, that we can expect mortality rates higher than those in mainland ", says Doctor Kathia Cadinouche, general practitioner and regulator at Samu, on behalf of an " informal group of professionals in the field" .
As in Mayotte, Reunion Island went to stage 2 of the epidemic on March 24.
