Mozambique: Prime Minister launches cholera vaccination campaign

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Mozambique: Prime Minister launches cholera vaccination campaign

10:56 CAT | 23 Sep 2020

Photo: Miramar

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario urged the population of the northern province of Cabo Delgado to participate in the cholera vaccination campaign that the government launched on Monday.

During the launch ceremony he also warned against possible disinformation and rumours concerning the purposes of the campaign. In previous anti-cholera drives in the northern provinces there have been groundless accusations that health workers are spreading the disease rather than fighting it.

An outbreak of cholera began in Cabo Delgado in February. It has affected the provincial capital, Pemba, and the districts of Mocimboa da Praia, Macomia, Ibo and Metuge. 1,627 people have been diagnosed with cholera, and 27 of them have died, a lethality rate of 1.7 per cent.

To mitigate the impact of the disease, the Ministry of Health has launched the present vaccination campaign, which will take place in two rounds in the affected districts. The first round began on Monday and will end on Friday. The second round will take place between 12 and 17 October.

In both rounds, the Ministry hopes to vaccinate 366,750 people. In Pemba and Metuge, the vaccine will only be administered to people who were not vaccinated in 2019. In that year, a considerable number of people in those districts were vaccinated shortly after Cyclone Kenneth hit the Cabo Delgado coast.

Rosario explained that a vaccinated person is protected against cholera, and thus has a reduced risk of transmitting the disease to others. But to have the desired impact, he added, the vaccination should be combined with other measures of individual and collective hygiene.

It was fundamental, he stressed, to step up actions to prevent both diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera, and the Covid-19 respiratory disease. That included regular washing of hands, particularly before contact with food, the correct use of latrines, and boiling water, or treating it with purifiers, before drinking it.

“If we comply fully with these measures, we shall be contributing significantly to the prevention and control of cholera”, said Rosario. “Vaccination complements these measures”.

730,000 doses of the vaccine are available and about 17 million meticais (236,000 US dollars) for logistical support required by the 119 vaccination brigades.

Source: AIM