In four months, cholera has killed 29 people in Mozambique. The outbreak of the disease is still active in the district of Mogovolas, in the northern province of Nampula.
Aleny Couto, deputy national director of public health, doesn’t hide the fact that the country’s health authorities are worried about the cholera situation.
“We’ve only had cholera in the province of Nampula and in just one district, the district of Mogovolas. Since these cases began on 17 October 2024, we have cumulatively had around 302 cases of cholera reported and 29 deaths, of which we have had 25 that occurred in the community and four that occurred in the health unit,” she said.
In addition to cholera, Aleny Couto says that in the last seven months Mozambique has reported around 1,200 cases of measles, with deaths, in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Nampula, Zambézia and Sofala. ‘That makes 31 deaths in the provinces mentioned here, of which – of the 31 deaths we’ve had – 27 have occurred in the community’, he explains.
At the same time, the Mozambican authorities have also activated surveillance measures following the confirmation of cases of Marburg disease in neighbouring Tanzania. Despite their vigilance, the Mozambican health authorities believe that there is still no cause for concern about the virus.
Eduardo Samo Gudo, director-general of the National Health Institute, indicated that the risks of the disease spreading to countries in the region are ‘low’ and that organisations such as the WHO and the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention are ‘taking measures to ensure that this outbreak is contained’ from Tanzania.
RFI
