Mozambique: Almost 900 new cholera cases, one death in north in 10 days

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Mozambique: Almost 900 new cholera cases, one death in north in 10 days

9:17 CAT | 22 Mar 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The Mozambican health authorities have recorded almost 900 new cases of cholera and one death in the north of the country in around ten days, according to official figures available to Lusa on Thursday.

According to the most recent bulletin on the progression of the disease, drawn up by the National Directorate of Public Health and with data up to 19 March, there have been 14,274 cases of cholera since 1 October in Mozambique.

In the previous bulletin, with data up to 8 March, the accumulated figure was 13,397 cases of cholera, which had so far caused 30 deaths.

In March there were three official deaths from cholera in the country, according to the same data.

The mortality rate of the disease currently stands at 0.2%, but the total number of people hospitalised has risen to 94.

The province most affected by the current wave of this cholera outbreak is Nampula (north), with an accumulated 4,710 cases and 12 deaths, followed by Tete (north-west), with 2,657 cases and ten deaths, where the prevalence of the disease rose to 0.4% in March.

Speaking to Lusa earlier, the head of the ministry of health’s Expanded Vaccination Programme, Leonildo Nhampossa, said that 2,268,548 people over the age of one had been vaccinated against cholera in four provinces between 8 and 12 January.

The target group for this vaccination operation was 2,271,136 people, corresponding to the population living in the most vulnerable areas and the focus of the current outbreak, the ministry of health said earlier.

Cholera is a treatable disease that causes severe diarrhoea and can lead to death from dehydration if not tackled promptly.

The disease is largely caused by the ingestion of contaminated food and water due to a lack of sanitation networks.

Last May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the world will have a shortage of cholera vaccines by 2025 and that one billion people in 43 countries could be infected with the disease, pointing in October to Mozambique as one of the countries most at risk.

Source: Lusa