Mozambican health authorities declare cholera outbreak in Nampula province

“At this moment, the district of Nacala Porto has a cholera outbreak.”

“We have 32 patients hospitalized” at the Nacala Porto General Hospital,” Celma Xavier, provincial chief medical officer, told the media in Nampula.

The province of Nampula registered one death by cholera and has 157 cases reported for two weeks, said Celma Xavier.

She mentioned that the Hospital Geral de Nacala Porto receives, on average, 15 patients daily.

“Rapid response teams were activated, and tents were set up at the hospital” to deal with the disease, according to Celma Xavier.

Besides Nacala Porto, the authorities are on alert in the districts of Malema, Murrupula, Moma, and Liúpo due to the “increase of diarrhea cases” registered in those districts, said the chief medical officer.

At least 1.2 million people have been vaccinated against the disease in the provinces of Zambezia, Manica, and Sofala, in the country’s center, which is 100% of the target, indicates the Ministry of Health (Misau).

According to its latest data, 111 people have died, and another 16,374 have been hospitalized due to cholera since September 2022 in Mozambique.

The update from the National Directorate of Public Health states that Mozambique has recorded 24,516 cases of the disease since September, 441 of which were recorded in the past 24 hours.

The provinces of Niassa, Tete, Sofala, and Zambezia are among the most affected by the disease, whose lethality rate is at 0.4%, according to the Health data.

The African Union’s (AU) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) today called for “support” from the international community to combat cholera outbreaks in Mozambique and Malawi, recently aggravated by the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.

“Mozambique and Malawi’s health and social infrastructure has been damaged.”

“We call on all those who can help cooperate with these countries to restore normalcy,” Africa CDC acting director Ahmed Ogwell said in an online press conference.

“The responses [in these two African nations] require a humanitarian approach,” added Ogwell, who stressed the need to ensure clean water supplies, proper human waste disposal, and inter-regional communications, among other urgent measures.

Cholera is a disease that causes severe diarrhea, which is treatable but can cause death from dehydration if not promptly combated – and is caused primarily by ingesting food and water contaminated by a lack of sanitation networks.

Mozambique, considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, is amid a cyclonic rainy season between October and April, with winds coming from the Indian Ocean and flooding originating in the southern African basins.

With information from Lusa