President Nyusi meets Cholera Emergency Group

President Filipe Nyusi on 19 February met with the Emergency Group on Cholera, which briefed him on the current state of the cholera outbreaks in Tete, Nampula and Niassa provinces.

Among the group were the Ministers of Health and of State Administration, Nazira Abdula and Carmelita Namashalua, and the director of the country’s relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), Joao Ribeiro.

President Nyusi said that, given the country’s accumulated experience of cholera outbreaks and how to deal with them, there was no justification for Mozambicans continuing to die from this disease.

“Because we are a serious government, committed to the cause of the people, we cannot afford allow a single life to be lost when we can save that life”, he declared.

The latest statistics from the Health Ministry, presented at the meeting, show that the number of cases of cholera has reached 2,903, with 31 deaths. The worst situation is in Tete, where there have been 1,328 confirmed cases and 19 deaths. In Nampula there have been 1,017 cases and four deaths, and in Niassa 558 cases and eight deaths.

The Health Ministry has been working with UNICEF and with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to set up cholera treatment centres, and to guarantee supplies of clean drinking water in cholera-hit areas, particularly Tete city.

The Health Ministry has stressed the need to take the measures to prevent and cure cholera into the communities, notably the distribution of oral rehydration salts “in order to speed up the treatment of people who are not yet very ill, so as to reduce the risk of serious illness and death.

The Ministry points out that, although cholera can kill in a matter of hours if left untreated, “when treated, the recovery rate is very high, hence the importance of people seeking medical help as soon as they suspect that they have been infected”.