Breast Cancer Awareness Trek in Morocco Leaves 200 Women Ill from Bacterial Outbreak

Vomiting, acute diarrhea, convulsions... These women were marked by the 100% female trek, five days of racing in the Sahara for the fight against breast cancer. In total, 200 of the more than 800 participants were infected by a bacterium. It would be an E-Coli or Shigella infection, two bacteria that have been circulating in the region for several weeks, reports France Inter. 15 of them were hospitalized in Morocco. According to the runners, the health facilities provided by Désertours, the operator organizing the trip, were inappropriate: 30 toilets for about 900 people, including staff.

Sarah Constanzo, 41, falls ill on the third day of this sporting trip. On site, there was no doctor to take care of this woman who survived a bout of breast cancer a few years ago. "They are busy with other women, in worse condition than hers," she says. She then decides to continue the race to reach the camp. "That’s how I did 19 kilometers," recalls Sarah, "a torment every moment." "We were crossing girls who were in terrible states, who were vomiting, who had to have diarrhea in the dunes," she testifies.

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She returns to the camp where the situation becomes complicated. "We hope to be evacuated, but nothing is done. [...] I lived 48 hours where we were in our vomit, in our excrement, it was indescribable," she continues. She lives 48 very difficult hours. "I feel like I’m leaving," she testifies. "I convulse on the ground for several hours," "and I’m told that my case is not a priority," she recounts. She will finally be evacuated by ambulance, seven hours by road to the nearest hospital, the Tafilalet clinic in Errachidia.

"It’s a huge waste," regrets Sarah Constanzo. "We had all come motivated, to live a moment that had meaning for us, that we had prepared, and that cost us dearly. [...] All that to live among the worst days of my existence," she continues. Dissatisfied, Karen Lacquit, another victim of the bacterium and other runners intend to sue the operator. "Désertours knew about the existence of these bacteria, after the Trophée Rose des Sables which was organized in the same place a few days earlier," denounces Karen Lacquit. For their part, the Moroccan health authorities are conducting an investigation to shed light on this case. Information confirmed by the French embassy in Morocco.