INTERVIEW – Faced with the scabies epidemic affecting the Porte de la Chapelle migrant camp, MSF deplores the lack of action by the public authorities.
A scabies epidemic hits the Porte de la Chapelle migrant camp in Paris. The alert was launched by Médecins sans frontières (MSF) and relayed by France Info. Far from being a first, such an epidemic had already broken out in the Calais “jungle”. It is in fact the lot of the populations which live in the extreme precariousness, the promiscuity, the deleterious hygienic conditions.
The MSF mobile clinic takes care of these cases, making up for the deficit of the public authorities, which have been called into question many times. Mondane Berthault, general practitioner, reviews the situation these refugees are going through.
To what do we owe the resurgence of cases of scabies in migrant camps?
Mondane Berthault: In fact, it is neither an emergence, nor a recrudescence of cases. Scabies is a very contagious disease, which spreads very easily in crowded conditions. There are regular epidemics in hospitals, retirement homes, holiday camps… So this is not an emergence in France.
Simply, we are dealing with a population of migrants who live in very precarious hygienic conditions. The ground is favorable for the disease to spread. This can be seen in all the camps, but the Porte de la Chapelle camp is affected because there are very many refugees there and places are very rare. So they sleep with each other, share their blankets, their sleeping bags …
Do you have sufficient access to treatment?
Mondane Berthault: The treatment is done in two parts. Patients should first be treated with two-course tablets eight days apart. Then, you have to treat the environment, clothes, sheets, sleeping bags, blankets … This is done with sprays provided to them, which eliminate the parasite.
But the conditions are far from ideal. Because normally, it would be necessary to be able to wash clothes and linen, to have access to washing machines, to put blankets and sheets at 60 degrees … change. We have the treatments, but the conditions for implementing them are not good. In addition, there is a psychological impact linked to this disease. People scratch themselves, it prevents them from sleeping, and they are already extremely fragile, anxious and exhausted. It really doesn’t help.
Why has nothing changed?
Mondane Berthault: I don’t know… But as soon as there are gatherings, as was the case in Calais, we can expect epidemics. This is a recurring problem that has existed for a long time, which can be expected whenever there are waves of migrants. It is therefore possible to anticipate.
What is needed is that these people can have access to decent living conditions, that they do not have to sleep in the street, huddled together because it is cold and it’s raining. We are talking about scabies here, but the problem of management is global.
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