Maputo, 19 Apr (AIM) – The Mozambican Health Ministry has recorded, from October 2023 until now, a total of 15,386 cases of cholera across the country.
According to Health Minister Armindo Tiago, who was addressing the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic (AR), on Thursday during a question and answer session between the government and the parliamentarians, 32 people have died of cholera, which is a lethality rate of 0.2 per cent.
“In the same period, 52 districts in eight provinces were affected by the disease”, said Tiago, “and the outbreak is currently active in 29 districts. The epidemiological data indicates a national trend of a reduction in cholera cases in recent weeks”.
In the last two weeks, he said, the outbreak affected 334 and 261 patients respectively. The peak was reached in the last week of 2023, with 740 confirmed cases.
The minister explained that the occurrence of cholera depends on poor sanitation, lack of access to clean drinking water, poor individual and collective hygiene habits, and poor knowledge about how the disease is spread.
Tiago added that outbreaks of disease “are the result of a multiplicity of factors, and are the responsibility of the individual, the government and society in general.”
“Cholera control actions must be aimed at resolving the determinants of the disease, emphasizing the specificities of the health sector, which include promoting health through educational messages on ways of transmitting the disease, and epidemiological and sanitary surveillance”, he said.
In addition to early diagnosis and treatment of cases to reduce mortality, the sector’s actions also include reactive vaccination in high-risk locations.
According to the minister, over 2.2 million eligible individuals have been vaccinated against cholera throughout the country, especially in high-risk areas.
“The government is finalizing the multi-sector cholera elimination plan, which has the overall objective of eliminating cholera as a public health problem by 2030. The disease elimination will be achieved through the coordinated implementation of multi-sector actions for prevention and response in all critical areas in the country”, he said.
Regarding the outbreak of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, which began in mid-February, the minister said that up until Tuesday, the country had recorded a total of 60,623 cases, with no deaths.
“Although the disease is self-limiting and does not need specific treatment, our country has registered cases of complications associated with self-medication”, the minister said.
The Health Ministry has warned that the use of supposedly “traditional” remedies against conjunctivitis is highly dangerous and can lead to blindness.
(AIM)
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