Maputo, 21 Mar (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Prison Service (SERNAP) has identified about 1,400 inmates with hemorrhagic conjunctivitis in various prison facilities across the country.
Mozambique has about 22,000 inmates, held in 157 prisons, including special, provincial, regional, district and open centers.
According to the national director of health care in SERNAP, Cremilde Anli, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, in the central province of Manica, the authorities are concerned about the spread of the disease.
In order to minimize the cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, Anli explained, hygiene measures have been strengthened in several prisons and restrictive measures have been adopted to stop the spread of the disease.
However, she acknowledged that the outbreak of conjunctivitis disease is reaching increasingly alarming proportions with each passing day.
“We currently have around 1,400 cases spread across various prisons in the country, with the northern regional prison penitentiary the highest number of cases. We’re talking about around 600, but we also have 300 cases in the Sofala prison” she said.
According to Anli, the Maputo Provincial Penitentiary has also recorded 300 cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis.
“We are concerned about what is happening in Maputo Penitentiary, not least because we realize that the source of the disease is not the community, but an inmate. In this case, we tried to do some research and realized that he, the patient who spread the illness, has never had contact with anyone outside. He’s been in jail for some time. So we don’t know exactly where this disease comes from”, she said.
The director explained that SERNAP is taking additional measures to contain the disease.
“We are in contact and coordinating with the Provincial and District Health Services in order to tackle this problem”, she said. “Any inmate who is diagnosed with this disease will be isolated from the others. We are providing soap for frequent hand cleaning. We always have water available so that they can clean their hands and eyes”.
The health authorities have recorded over 8,000 cases of conjunctivitis in seven provinces in less than a month, which makes the disease a very alarming public health problem.
(AIM)
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