MOZAMBIQUE: Cholera death toll rises

JOHANNESBURG, 24 March 2004 (IRIN) - The cholera death toll in Mozambique has risen to 90 since December, a senior health official told IRIN on Wednesday. The country had recorded 15,833 cases from 20 December up to Wednesday, in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Sofala, Zambezia, Nampula, Inhambane and Tete, said Gofe Chavele of the Ministry of Health. At 9,841 cases, the capital, Maputo, had the highest concentration of infections. "The cholera outbreak has continued, as rain continues to fall in Mozambique. We have had very heavy downpours in January and February," Dr Pierre Kahozi of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. The number of cases had continued to rise because Mozambicans were still using water from contaminated wells. Kahozi said the Mozambican authorities had been providing tankers of water to affected communities. "But people have families, the water provided by the tankers is not enough and they try to boost their supply from the wells, which are not covered. The rain washes faeces and other pollutants into the wells," he explained. In many cases, poorly constructed wells located near latrines also became contaminated by waste seeping through the walls. "The authorities have been trying to treat the water in the wells, but that has not proven very effective," Kahozi said. Giving people access to clean drinking water by providing piped water was the only effective method to control the outbreak - only 40 percent of Mozambicans have access to clean drinking water, Kahozi noted. The Mozambican government declared a cholera emergency in January. The WHO and other agencies, including the UN Children's Fund, Médecins Sans Frontieres, World Food Programme, the United States Agency for International Development and the Italian government are providing technical and financial assistance to help stem the outbreak. Kahozi said in the next two months the authorities, in cooperation with the humanitarian agencies, were expected to draw up a long-term plan to combat the problem.