A medical enigma : what "gale chinoise (Chinese scabies)" meant 150 years ago.

CONTEXT: The meaning of the term "gale chinoise" mentioned in some articles about French overseas territories in the 19th century, remains unclear. In response to a query of an American colleague dermatologist trying to find out what it meant 150 years ago, we attempted to elucidate the nature of this ancient disease, which today would be translated literally as Chinese scabies. METHOD: We submitted the query to a panel of civilian and military French tropical medicine specialists including dermatologists, through two networks : Association Amicale Santé Navale et d'Outre-Mer and Société de Pathologie Exotique. RESULTS: Very few answers were received from the approximately 400 colleagues in these networks. They mentioned : ciguatera, other types of ichtyosarcotoxism, smallpox, and leprosy. Several said they never encountered this term during many years spent in French Polynesia, and none was able to find irrefutable proof of their suggestion. Discussion and conclusion. Leprosy, smallpox, ciguatera? The identity of "gale chinoise" remains an enigma ; it might have been intended to designate several different diseases.

[History of leprosy in Reunion Island from the beginning of the 18th century until today]. / Histoire de la lèpre à La Réunion du début du XVIII(e) siècle à nos jours.

This article traces the history of leprosy in Reunion from the early eighteenth century, which long paralleled the slave trace. Lepers were confined to a lazaretto and treated with herbs. Father Raimbault, "doctor" and chaplain of the lepers in the middle of the twentieth century, is still honored today. The improvement in living standards and the use of sulfones finally resulted in the control of leprosy. Nonetheless, from 2005 to 2011, an average of three new cases per year were detected among a population of 800,000 inhabitants.

[History of human epidemic and endemic diseases in the southwest Indian Ocean]. / Histoire des épidémies et des endémoépidémies humaines dans le sud-ouest de l'océan Indien.

Smallpox has been known in the Mascarene Islands since 1729, and in 1898, the vaccinogenic and anti-rabies Institute of Tananarive, the future Pasteur Institute of Madagascar, was created to combat it. Cholera first arrived in the Mascarenes in 1819, but did not affect the Comoros Islands and Madagascar until the current pandemic. Bubonic plague has beset the ports of Madagascar and the Mascarenes since 1898. Girard and Robic developed the anti-plague vaccine in 1931 at the Pasteur Institute of Madagascar. The Mascarenes lost their reputation as Eden when malaria arrived in 1841, and this disease remains prominent in Madagascar and Comoros. Leprosy has been known in La Réunion since 1726 and is still very present in Mayotte, Anjouan, and Madagascar. Leptospirosis is a public health problem, except in Madagascar and the Comoros. Dengue, chikungunya, and Rift Valley fever are also present. HIV/AIDS is not a major concern, except in Mauritius, where it was spread by injection drug use, in the Seychelles and in Madagascar's largest cities. Madagascar is the principal site worldwide of chromoblastomycosis, first described there in 1914.

[Status report on public health in Mauritius in 2009]. / Situation et enjeux sanitaires à l'île Maurice en 2009.

Mauritius is an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwestern Indian Ocean. Improved socio-sanitation conditions over the past years have dramatically decreased the incidence of tropical diseases to levels comparable with those observed in developed countries. Some tropical illnesses including malaria, schistosomiasis, cysticercosis and lymphatic filariasis have been eradicated. Others such as amibiasis, typhoid fever and leprosy have become rare. However, because of the island's geographical proximity to countries with uncontrolled and suboptimal socio-sanitation conditions and its humid subtropical climate, there is a continued risk for certain vector transmitted tropical diseases such as Chikungunya and dengue. In addition, the incidence of HIV infection and AIDS has been rising rapidly since 2004 and tuberculosis remains a public health problem. Better living conditions have also been accompanied by an increase in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases that, along with cancer, are now the main causes of morbidity and mortality.