Cholera vaccination campaign launched after cyclone in Mozambique

GENEVA (Reuters) – Health authorities on Wednesday issued a vaccination campaign in the cyclone-hit port town of Beira to contain a cholera outbreak that has already infected more than 1,400 people, the organization said on Wednesday. World Health Organization (WHO).

The US health agency has sent some 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine to Mozambique, where cyclone Idai has destroyed homes and caused numerous floods.

All vaccine doses have arrived and the goal is to vaccinate 900,000 people during a six-day campaign that began Wednesday.

The storm and subsequent floods in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi killed 843 people. Humanitarian efforts are now turning to the prevention of further loss of life due to the disease.

On Tuesday, the Mozambique Ministry of Health reported 1,428 cases of cholera, including one death since the announcement of the outbreak on March 27.

"We should not be focusing too much on the numbers, because many people are not being tested for cholera," said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. "The important thing is to have the patients treated as soon as possible."

The vaccination campaign, which, according to WHO officials, would immunize about 100,000 people last week, is expected to expand outside Beira in the coming days.

Cholera is endemic in Mozambique, which has had regular epidemics in the last five years. According to the WHO, about 2,000 people were infected during the last epidemic, which ended in February 2018.

The scale of the damage to Beira's water and sanitation infrastructure, as well as its dense population, has raised fears that another outbreak will be difficult to control.

The United Nations has appealed for $ 392 million to fund the humanitarian response to the disaster in southern Africa over the next three months. To date, only $ 46 million has been received.