Mozambique: Almost 100 new cases of cholera in Nampula

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Mozambique: Almost 100 new cases of cholera in Nampula

1:37 CAT | 26 Feb 2025

File photo: Observador

According to official figures from the health authorities, the cholera outbreak in the Mozambican province of Nampula has caused around 100 new infections since Friday, bringing the number of cases to 579 in three districts.

On Saturday, the local health authorities confirmed cases of cholera in the districts of Nampula and Murrupula, as well as Mogovolas – which has already recorded a total of 29 deaths – with a total of 494 infected since October until Friday.

According to the data presented on Wednesday by the health authorities in Nampula, in the last 24 hours the number of cholera cases in the province has risen to 579, spread across Mogovolas (302), Nampula (166) and Murrupula (111).

‘We have three districts at the moment with a cholera outbreak,’ the provincial director of health in Nampula, Selma Xavier, told reporters on Monday, pointing out that in the district of Mogovolas “the outbreak has been going on since October last year” and it still hasn’t been possible to control it.

She also acknowledged that it was not possible to obtain data from the Mogovolas district due to the vandalisation of the Cholera Treatment Centre, and that it was only recently that the health centre in the district headquarters town was reopened.

‘We’ve reopened the health centre there and we’re trying to treat all the patients who turn up with the disease,’ he said.

The latest report on the progression of the disease in Mozambique, for the period from October 2023 to July 2024, indicated 16,506 infected people, with a lethality rate of 0.2% throughout the country.

On 7 February, the health authorities in Nampula acknowledged that myths and misinformation have compromised the cholera vaccination target in the district of Mogovolas, which is among the most affected in the northern province of Mozambique.

The authorities wanted to reach 197,999 people but ended up vaccinating 169,865, corresponding to 85.8%, Samuel Carlos, a representative of the Provincial Health Service in Nampula, told Lusa at the time.

Due to the wave of misinformation, with communities accusing health workers on the ground of spreading the disease, people in Mogovolas destroyed the Cholera Treatment Centre, as well as the operating theatre of the government’s strategic partner, the non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières.

‘Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to vaccinate everyone (…), but this result was encouraging because we had anticipated a certain amount of resistance. With the military’s help, we could continue with the campaign,’ he added.

This campaign was carried out in a district with an estimated population of 457,000. It ran from 6 to 10 January and focused on at least three critical points: Nametil-7, Matua, and Nanhupo-Rio.

Source: Lusa