FESTIVE SEASON AT THE DOOR: Health alert on cholera risk

Health officials warn that the lack of hygiene in the handling of food and the deterioration of environment sanitation can provide conditions for the cholera outbreak during the festive season ahead,and call for extra care in communities.

Ussene Isse,national director for Medical Assistance,said the purpose-that one should pay attention when buying products,drawing attention to the need for the same to be done in places with good hygiene.


Isse also recommended a healthy diet,as well as taking care when buying food products,in compliance withthe respective expiry dates.

Health authorities have warned of the risk of outbreak of the disease and its rapid spread,mainly because of being in full the rainy season and associated with the greater movement of people.

The appeal,according to Isse,is that there be increased vigilance and reinforcement of the measures for individual and collective hygiene.

In the city and province of Maputo the fear of the authorities is related to the fact that restrictions on the power supply is affecting the availability of water,creating
an environment conducive to the spread of diarrheal diseases including cholera,especially at a time there is lot of movement of persons from one point to another in the country.

Cholera is common in Mozambique during the rainy season,which usually extendfrom October to March.

The situation is aggravated in
situations of poor sanitation or even restrictions in water supply.

During the rainy seasons,the provinces step up sanitation campaigns as a way to prevent diarrheal diseases,particularly cholera.

Held in the third weekend of each month,the campaigns were reactivated soon after the outbreak of cholera that affected earlier this year in the provinces of Tete, Zambezia and Nampula.

The experience helped to contain the epidemic in a short time that the country was going through in Tete,Zambezia and Nampula,where there were registered many cases and deaths.

The national sanitation campaign also aims to improve the population's hygiene habits to
reduce all water-borne diseases, including diarrhea,malaria and cholera.