Nampula city plans cholera vaccination in five previously affected neighbourhoods – Mozambique

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Nampula city plans cholera vaccination in five previously affected neighbourhoods – Mozambique

2:12 CAT | 17 Sep 2016

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The health authorities in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula are planning a vaccination campaign against cholera in October in five Nampula neighbourhoods, namely Muatala, Muatauanha, Murrapaniua, Carupeia and Natiquiri.

The head of the public health department, and spokesperson for the Nampula Provincial Health Directorate, Americo Barata, told a Friday press conference that these neighbourhoods have been chosen because they had been the areas most affected in previous cholera outbreaks.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has made available 400,000 doses of the oral vaccine, enough for 200,000 people (since, for effective immunization, each person must receive two doses). The vaccine is already in Mozambique and should reach Nampula in a few days.

Barata expected the campaign to take place in October, The local authorities are proposing 3-9 October for administering the first dose, and 24-30 October for the second dose. “These are preliminary dates”, he stressed, “since the Ministry of Health could opt for other dates”.

A technical team from the Health Ministry, the Provincial Health Directorate and WHO is working in the city to assess the challenges involved in a cholera vaccination campaign. A second team, including staff from the Nampula Municipal Council, is working with the local communities, asking them how they would prefer to receive the vaccine – at fixed posts, or from mobile brigades visiting their homes.

Barata thought that, although the vaccine is not 100 per cent effective, it would reduce vulnerability to cholera. “If 100 people receive the vaccine, then maybe 90 of them will become immune to the disease”, he said. “And the people who receive the vaccine this year will remain protected for the next five years”.

The oral cholera vaccines are said to be 85 per cent effective in the first six months. WHO recommends that they be used among people a high risk, together with other hygiene measures. The vaccines are safe and cost-effective.

Source: AIM