Cholera outbreak fuels death toll in cyclone-hit Mozambique city
Beira bore the brunt of Cyclone Idai and there are hundreds of cases of the illness.
Mozambique’s cyclone-hit city of Beira has confirmed its first death from cholera, as the number of cases of the disease has jumped to 517.
To control the outbreak, emergency clinics have been set up across Beira, a city of 500,000, said Mozambican national health director Ussene Isse, according to broadcaster TVM.
Cases of the acute disease have risen dramatically since the first five cases were confirmed last week.
Cyclone Idai severely damaged the water system for Beira when it hit on March 14.
Cholera is spread by contaminated water and food.
It can kill within hours but is relatively easy to treat.
The overall cyclone death toll in Mozambique is now 518.
With 259 deaths in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi, the three-nation death toll is more than 815.
Authorities warn the tolls are preliminary as flood waters recede and reveal more bodies.
The Chinese government has sent doctors and emergency workers to fight the cholera outbreak in Beira and Chinese aid workers sprayed anti-cholera disinfectant in parts of the port city.
Round-the-clock flights are delivering supplies from the UN World Food Programme from King Shaka International Airport in Durban, South Africa, said Robert Mearkle, US embassy spokesman.
He said the commodities airlifted from Durban were from the World Food Programme’s internal stock.
“Separately from these shipments, the United States has provided nearly 3.4 million US dollars in additional funding for the World Food Programme to deliver approximately 2,500 metric tons of rice, peas, and vegetable oil to affected people in Sofala, Zambezia, and Manica provinces,” said Mr Mearkle.
“This lifesaving emergency food assistance will support approximately 160,000 people for one month.”
Beira’s crowded, poor neighbourhoods are especially at risk.
Cholera is a major concern for the hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in the southern African nation now living in squalid conditions in camps, schools or damaged homes.
Some drink from contaminated wells or filthy, stagnant water.
As health personnel stress the need for better disease surveillance, the United Nations’ deputy humanitarian coordinator in Mozambique, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, has said all cases of diarrhoea are being treated as though they are cholera.
Doctors Without Borders has said other suspected cholera cases have been reported outside Beira in the badly hit areas of Buzi, Tica and Nhamathanda but the chance of spread in rural areas is smaller because people are more dispersed.
Mozambican officials have said Cyclone Idai destroyed more than 50 health centres in the region, complicating response efforts.
The United Nations has said some 1.8 million people need urgent help across the sodden, largely rural region.
