OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Sunday
HARD on the heels of a South African cholera epidemic which has killed nearly 60 people, more than 50 have died from the disease and 2_400 fallen ill in the Mozambican capital Maputo, according to news reports.
Hospitals in the capital were admitting between 40 and 50 new cholera patients each day, the state-owned newspaper Noticias reported.
The outbreak began in late December and has worsened in recent days in Maputo and the central province of Manica, the health ministry said.
The northern province of Niassa and the southern province of Gaza have also been hit, with 10 patients dying in each province. Officials blame rains in the last few months and poor sanitation for the outbreak.
Health minister Francisco Songane urged people to wash their hands before eating and cooking food, and to boil water before drinking it. Speaking on state radio, he called the situation “worrying.”
Officials trying to prevent the epidemic from reaching other parts of the country, he said.
“This task should not only be of the ministry of health, but of everybody,” he said. “We have combat this epidemic, which is spreading so quickly.”
Cholera, a highly contagious, water-borne diarrhoeal disease, killed more than 100 Mozambicans in a 1998 epidemic.
The current cholera epidemic in neighbouring South Africa, that began in August, has claimed 59 lives and infected more than 14_000 people.