Maputo, 1 Feb (AIM) – The Mozambican heath authorities recorded 3,115 cases of leprosy from 2021 to 2023, mostly in the central and northern regions of the country.
According to Francisco Guilenge, a representative of the Ministry of Health’s Leprosy Prevention and Control Department, cited by the independent daily “O País”, in 2023 alone “we had 2,709 cases of leprosy. That’s why anyone who has a sign of this disease, a scab, or any kind of pimple or any lack of movement in any part of the body, must go immediately to a health unit, or to a community health worker”.
Although the country was declared free from the disease in 2008, lately there has been a resurgence of leprosy in some provinces, notably in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
In Cabo Delgado, leprosy patients no longer have access to medical treatment and psychosocial assistance, because of the islamist terrorism that has been plaguing some districts of the province.
“Unfortunately, there has been a reduction in activities at community level. We’ve been working with the government and with partners and, when we declared elimination in 2008, there was a reduction in the budget on the part of the partners, so we had to reduce the interventions”, Guilenge said.
The Association of People Affected by Leprosy (ALEMO) considers the situation as critical. The ALEMO representative in Cabo Delgado, Regina Jacinto, told “O Pais” that the organization cannot follow the leprosy patients appropriately because they have been displaced from their homes by the terrorist attacks.
“The effects of this war have stopped partly or totally visits to the groups in the north of the province, and parts of the centre and south”, she said.
ALEMO’s concern was presented at a meeting in Namuno district, during commemorations of the World Day of Struggle against Neglected Tropical Diseases.
“Leprosy continues to concern our province, because of the occurrence of pockets of this disease across the province”, said the Cabo Delgado provincial director of health, Magido Sabuna. “745 new cases were diagnosed in the province in 2023, against 568 diagnosed in 2022”.
(AIM)
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