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BEIRA, MOZAMBIQUE – Mozambican and international health workers ran Monday to contain the cholera epidemic in the cyclone-affected city of Beira and surrounding areas, where the number of cases of the disease has risen to more than 1,000.
The cholera has killed one and 97 of the reported cases are still in treatment centers, and others have been released, said Mozambique's director of health, Ussein Isse. The new figures indicate that cholera is spreading but is being controlled, say health workers.
The total number of cyclone victims in Mozambique has risen to 518. With 259 deaths in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi, the number of Cyclone Idai victims in all three countries is now more than 815. The authorities warn that the balance is preliminary because of the decline in flood waters over the body.
"There are seven operational cholera emergency treatment centers in Beira and two others in the process of being established. Two more centers are being set up in Nhamatanda, "said David Wightwick, head of the World Health Organization team in Beira.
Mozambican workers have restored tap water in parts of Beira, a town of 500,000 inhabitants, although large areas of the urban center still do not have access to sanitary water, he told The Associated Press during a visit to a water treatment center.
"A vaccination campaign against cholera, with 900,000 doses of vaccine, will begin Wednesday," said Wightwick. "This should blunt the brink of this epidemic."
More than two weeks after the cyclone that struck Beira and swept through central Mozambique, about 98,000 people live in IDP camps and "live under the net," he said.
"Cholera is our most immediate challenge," said Wightwick, who added that providing adequate nutrition to the population and fighting against other diseases such as malaria was also a priority.
In addition to Mozambican physicians, health workers from Portugal, Denmark, Italy and China are helping to cope with the crisis.
The International Federation of the Red Cross, which has also established a health center in Macurungo, is currently building water points and latrines throughout Beira, is building a field hospital in Nhamatanda and is distributing relief supplies to 800 people. Buzi, said spokeswoman Jana Sweeny.
Cases of cholera, an acute diarrheal disease, have increased significantly since the confirmation of the first five cases last week. Cholera is spread by water and contaminated food. It can kill in a few hours but is relatively easy to treat.
The US military has joined international humanitarian aid efforts in Mozambique by transporting food and relief supplies from South Africa by road.
24-hour flights provide supplies from the US World Food Program from King Shaka International Airport in Durban, South Africa, said Robert Mearkle, spokesman for the US Embbady.
He added that Durban's airlifted products came from the internal stock of the World Food Program, including rice, dried peas and vegetable oil.
"This emergency food aid that will save lives will help about 160,000 people for a month," said Mearkle.
While health workers stress the need for better surveillance of the disease, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, the UN's Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Mozambique, said all cases of diarrhea were treated like cholera.
Cholera is endemic in the region and "he declares quickly and travels extremely fast," he told reporters.
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 United Nations said some 1.8 million people needed urgent help in Mozambique's wet, mostly rural region.
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