Mozambique: cholera outbreaks

[Shiloh]

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/13/content_10349535.htm

Cholera death toll rises to 53 in Mozambique
www.chinaview.cn 2008-11-13 01:29:36


MAPUTO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of deaths from cholera in the district of Guro in the central Mozambican province of Manica has risen to 53, out of 180 cases notified, since the outbreak of the disease about two weeks ago, AIM reported on Wednesday.

Chinda, 180 kilometers north of Guro town, is the most severely affected area, with 48 of the known deaths.

According to the state news agency, the death toll was so high in Chinda because the area is dominated by a religious sect, the Johan Marangue Church, which forbids its believers from using modern medicine.

Members of this church obstructed the initial work of health brigades in Chinda, and have also refused to support the national sanitation campaign launched a few months ago by President Armando Guebuza.

The majority of the dead were members of this church.

The local health authorities describe the current situation as stable, since no further cases have been reported since Monday, but they are still maintaining the maximum alert recently decreed, and the cholera treatment center is still open.

Meanwhile, one cholera death has been reported from the western city of Tete where at least 83 cases were notified, from the Filipe Samuel Magaia and Sansao Muthemba neighborhoods.

Tete provincial health Director Luisa Cumba said that the Tete Cholera Treatment Centre has also been receiving patients with diarrhea and vomiting since last week, from the rural districts of Chiuta and Machanga.

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Mozambique: cholera outbreak deaths rise

Re: Mozambique: cholera outbreak deaths rise

Mozambique: Worst Cholera Outbreak in a Long Time

25 March 2009

Johannesburg ? With resources stretched thin, aid agencies struggling to contain a cholera outbreak across all but one of Mozambique's 10 provinces hope the approaching end of the rainy season will bring some relief.

"This year is worse than previous years, even worse than years in which we had floods. There are more cases and the fatality rate is slightly higher," secretary-general of the Mozambican Red Cross, Fernanda Teixeira, told IRIN. Over 12,000 cases and 157 deaths have been recorded since 1 January 2009.

The latest Southern Africa Regional Cholera Update, compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the highest number of cases had been recorded in the northeastern provinces of Nampula (3,033) and Cabo Delgado (2,427).

"More and more districts are affected and there is an urgent need to strengthen surveillance, preparedness and response to the cholera outbreak in Mozambique, particularly in districts with high transmission risk and border districts to countries affected by cholera," the OCHA update said.

Not a new problem

Cholera is also ravaging neighbouring Zimbabwe - 92,811 cases and 4,077 deaths have been reported since August 2008, according to OCHA - but Teixeira said the Mozambican outbreak was not necessarily related: "Cholera has always been in Mozambique, it's endemic."

The cholera country profile of Mozambique by the World Health Organization notes that the disease has been present in the country since 1973. In 1992, '93, '98, '99 and 2004, notified cholera cases in Mozambique represented between one-third and one-fifth of all cases reported in Africa.

Cholera is a waterborne intestinal infection that causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to rapid dehydration. Left untreated it can bring death within 24 hours, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) describes it as "an easily treatable disease" cured with rehydration salts.

Hard to eradicate

The surge in new cases was attributed to recent heavy rainfall in a number of provinces, but the underlying factors of cholera in Mozambique have always been related to pervasive water and sanitation problems, and a chronic lack of access to health facilities.

"There are many causes, like poor sanitation in cities and in the countryside," Texeira said. Less than 50 percent of Mozambique's 21 million people have access to safe drinking water.

The ministry of health has been leading the response to the outbreak, with the help of partners like WHO, the Red Cross and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). According to the OCHA update, health and water and sanitation were key areas in the ongoing intervention.

"Social mobilization campaigns via radio, and distribution of information, education and communication materials were being intensified in order to reduce misconceptions and mobilize community around key cholera prevention messages," the update noted.

The need for adequate information was recently evidenced in a tragic case of ignorance when two Mozambican Red Cross volunteers were killed by the local community, who were convinced that the volunteers were deliberately spreading cholera. The incident in early March resulted in the charity organization halting its health work in the province of Nampula.

We are doing what we can with the resources we have ... the rainy season will come to an end in April; usually the situation then becomes better

Providing assistance in remote areas is often very difficult. "People in rural areas don't seek assistance, or lack access to health facilities; when they finally get there it's often too late," Teixiera said.

Money and weather may bring relief

The OCHA update said a US$ 875,000 donation by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) had recently been released to help the humanitarian community in Mozambique cover the immediate needs of the response.

In the meantime, Teixiera said, "We are doing what we can with the resources we have ... the rainy season will come to an end in April; usually the situation then becomes better."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200903250795.html

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Mozambique: cholera outbreaks

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200910080922.html

Mozambique: Cholera Outbreak in Cabo Delgado
8 October 2009

Maputo ? Cholera is spreading again in the northern Mozambican province, after a hiatus of two months in which no cases were notified, according to a report in Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

When the epidemic appeared to have run is course, the health authorities decided to close the cholera treatment centres in the province, but following a renewed outbreak as of 26 September, some of them have been re-opened.

The Health Ministry in Maputo has not yet confirmed the spread of the disease to Ancuabe district - but earlier this week the Cabo Delgado chief doctor, Cesario Sauegi, was cited as saying he was certain that the diarrhea cases reported from Ancuabe were in fact cholera.

The Deputy National Director of Health, Leonardo Chavane, told reporters in Maputo on Wednesday that, with this new outbreak, the total number of known cholera cases in Cabo Delgado since the start of the year stands at 19,069 with 15 deaths.

Chavane blamed the new outbreak on poor hygienic and sanitation and a shortage of clean drinking water.

Besides treating the patients in the Cholera Treatment Centres and monitoring the cases of diarrhoea, the health authorities are working to publicise good hygiene practices among the communities, and using chlorine to purify water.

Commenting on the situation in other parts of the country, Chavane said that his institution has been monitoring cases of diarrhoea in all provinces and districts, even where there has not yet been any need to reopen treatment centres.