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Cholera outbreak kills 19 in Mozambique

Wednesday, 11 February 2015 6:04 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 11 February 2015 6:05 PM ]

The file photo shows a flood-hit region in Mozambique.

A cholera outbreak has killed at least 19 people in northern Mozambique following a devastating flood, health officials say.

Lorna Gurjal, the head of the Mozambique Health Ministry’s Epidemiology Department, said on Wednesday that hundreds were infected in the latest outbreak.

“We have counted 1,702 cases and 19 deaths in the Nampula, Niassa and Tete provinces,” media outlets quoted Gurjal as saying.

Health experts have warned against numerous waterborne diseases across the worst-affected areas.

Mozambique regularly suffers outbreaks of cholera and diarrhea during the rainy summer season.

Meanwhile, the death toll from devastating floods in the northern and central parts of the African country has risen to at least 158. The cholera outbreak will push that tally higher.

Mozambique’s central province of Zambezia was the worst affected with 134 killed and 125,000 affected since mid-January, when floods triggered by heavy rains battered the country.

A state of emergency was declared after heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks, wrecking infrastructure.

Mozambique’s officials say flooded rivers have started to subside in the country’s northern and central provinces, easing the plight of some 177,000 people affected by the rain storms.

Mozambique’s deadliest floods were in 2000, when an estimated 800 people lost their lives.

The impact of the floods on Mozambique’s economy will likely be significant since 80 percent of the population in the African state depend on agriculture.

JR/HSN/SS

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