Cholera cases in Mozambique increase with the toll of cyclone 501 victims

BEIRA, Mozambique – The number of cholera cases among cyclone survivors in Mozambique has risen to 271, according to the authorities, a figure that has almost doubled from the previous day.

The Portuguese Lusa news agency quoted National Health Director Ussein Isse, who had declared the epidemic of acute diarrhea on Wednesday with only five cases.

So far, no deaths related to cholera have been confirmed, the report said. According to another report by Lusa, the toll of the cyclone that struck on March 14 killed 50 people in central Mozambique. The authorities have warned that the balance sheet is highly preliminary, as the floodwaters retreat and reveal more bodies.

Cases of cholera have been discovered in the port city of Beira, whose half-million inhabitants, and especially those in crowded working-clbad neighborhoods, are particularly at risk.

Children and other patients huddled on a bare bed at a Beira treatment center on Saturday, some with concerned parents by their side. They had intravenous drops to help replace the fluids.

Doctors Without Borders said it was monitoring about 200 probable cholera cases a day in the city, where aid workers are providing urgent badistance to restore the damaged water supply system and provide additional medical badistance.

According to the World Health Organization, some 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine are expected to arrive on Monday, and a vaccination campaign will begin later in the week.

Cholera is spread by contaminated food and water and can kill in a few hours if it is not treated. The disease is a major concern for the hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in this country of southern Africa who are now living in squalid conditions in damaged camps, schools or homes. Some drink in contaminated wells or in dirty, stagnant water.

While health workers stress the need for better surveillance of the disease, the UN's Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Mozambique, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, said all cases of diarrhea were treated like cholera.

Cholera is endemic in the region and "he declares himself very quickly and he travels extremely fast," he told reporters on Friday.

Doctors Without Borders said that other suspected cases of cholera had been reported outside Beira in the heavily affected areas of Buzi, Tica and Nhamathanda, but that the risks of spreading in rural areas are less important because the populations are more dispersed.

Mozambican officials said Cyclone Idai destroyed more than 50 health centers in the region, complicating response efforts.

The cyclone also killed at least 259 people in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi.

According to the United Nations, some 1.8 million people need urgent help in this soggy and largely rural region.