Haute-Garonne: A school closes after a mysterious gastro epidemic (illustration).
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FRED SCHEIBER / 20 MINUTES
Nothing to do with Covid-19, but the process is the same: you have to break the chain of contamination by limiting contact.
Three days before the holidays, the mayor of Gragnague, a town located about twenty kilometers north-east of Toulouse, took this Wednesday, in agreement with the health authorities, the decision to close his school.
Because Tuesday, 12 new students were taken mainly from vomiting but also from diarrhea, bringing to
roughly
120 the number of cases of this mysterious epidemic in one week, without counting the dozen parents also affected.
The symptoms disappear after two days, but other patients appear.
Pending the verdict of the analyzes
"The idea is to break the cycle of contamination in a situation of which we still do not know the cause", explains Alexandre Pelangeon, departmental manager of Health and Environment at the regional health agency (ARS).
When the cases were declared by the dozen on February 3, analyzes were carried out.
The hypothesis of a pathogen in tap water was quickly ruled out.
But the results of the investigations into the meals served in the canteen on Tuesday have still not been released.
The ARS is counting on a "hand-carried" transmission, by contact between schoolchildren first, then within certain families.
But the origin remains unknown.
The stool tests of patients may be the culprit.
While waiting to understand, the school premises will be carefully disinfected.
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Toulouse
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