Mozambican provinces hit by leprosy

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambican provinces hit by leprosy

11:11 CAT | 05 Feb 2016

In file Club of Mozambique.

Mozambican health authorities have expressed concern over continued cases of leprosy in at least four provinces despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the country free of the disease eight years ago, APA learns here on Wednesday.The affected provinces, according to the country’s Deputy Health Minister Mouzinho Saide, are Gaza (in the south), Manica, Sofala and Zambezia (in the centre).

According to state-controlled Radio Mozambique, Saide was speaking in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado on the occasion of the World Leprosy Day marked all over the globe on Tuesday.

Leprosy is curable but mutilating and highly contagious. If not treated it can cause many deformities, severe pain, stiff and dry skin, blindness, nosebleeds and paralysis.

Saide said the provinces affected by leprosy recorded over 1,200 new cases of the disease last year.

In Manica province, for instance, the health authorities are treating 40 patients of leprosy, most of them with various serious physical deformities caused by the disease.

People who develop disabilities from leprosy are often excluded from their families and their work, and women may find it harder to marry if they are known to have the disease.

Nearly 10 percent of new cases globally are children, according to the WHO, which is developing a strategy to improve early detection by 2020 and stop all children from developing deformities.

Source: APA