Chimoio (Mozambique), 12 Jun (AIM) – The health services of the central Mozambican province of Manica have closed all the cholera treatment centres in the province.
For the past two months, the province has recorded no cases of cholera, and so the authorities have declared Manica free of the disease. Earlier in the year, Manica notified more than 1,600 cases of cholera, with nine deaths.
“It’s been two months since we recorded any new cases of cholera”, said Flavio Roque, the Manica provincial chief doctor. “But we are urging the public to continue observing all measures of individual and collective hygiene to avoid the re-appearance of the disease”.
Speaking in the provincial capital, Chimoio, where he announced the start this week of another round of vaccination against polio, Roque stressed “we cannot be complacent, and think that the cholera outbreak has finished”.
“Let’s wash our hands correctly, and let’s wash the food we eat raw”, he said. “Let’s clean our yards, and let’s use chlorine and certeza to purify the water” (certeza is a commercial brand of purifier).
“We don’t want the province to have any new cases of cholera”, he insisted.
Every citizen, Roque continued, should be responsible in his community for compliance with good practices, making proper use of latrines, and eliminating heaps of rubbish and pools of stagnant water. “Thus we shall be participating in the fight against diseases such as cholera”, he said.
The cholera outbreak began in late January in Tambara district, in the north of the province, and then spread to the districts of Manica, Machaze, Gôndola, Vanduzi, and Chimoio city.
(AIM)
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