Mozambique: 48,000 cases of tuberculosis diagnosed over last six months

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Mozambique: 48,000 cases of tuberculosis diagnosed over last six months

5:46 CAT | 23 Jul 2025

File photo: AIM

The Mozambican health authorities have diagnosed, over the last six months, more than 48,000 cases of tuberculosis compared to 54,000 in the same period of 2024.

According to Ivan Manhiça, the permanent secretary of the Health Ministry, speaking on Tuesday, in Maputo, at the Forum of the Tuberculosis Initiative, which took place simultaneously with the 4th Symposium on Global Health of the Manhiça Foundation, under the slogan “Three Decades of Impact on Children’s Health”, the increase in cases of tuberculosis has been influenced by the cut in international funding for the health sector.

“Mozambique continues to face a high burden of this disease, often associated with HIV, affecting mainly the most vulnerable populations, requiring coordinated actions, continuous investments and technological innovations for early diagnosis and effective treatment”, he said.

Manhiça explained that some regions are beginning to see an increase in the number of cases, following “the cut in funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)”.

Manhiça also said that the abandonment of treatment continues to be one of the biggest causes of death. “Looking at the incidence in the general population, there are 361 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. With the real estimates, we expect to find about 121,000 cases of tuberculosis per year”, he added.

For his part, the director of the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM), Francisco Saúte, said that research laboratories are working to find a new vaccine for tuberculosis in order to prevent infections from spreading easily.

“I must first say that there is a tuberculosis vaccine, which is more than 100 years old, but it has limited efficacy in preventing infections. We’re investigating a new one, using more recent technologies and we’re still in the initial evaluation phase. We’re waiting for specific measures to be completed in order to finalize the preliminary analysis of the data”, he said.

The director guaranteed that CISM will soon test the new vaccine to prevent tuberculosis, “which is at the sample collection stage.”

Source: AIM