The number of confirmed cases of cholera in the cyclone-hit Mozambican port city of Beira jumped from five to 138 yesterday, as government and aid agencies battled to contain the spread of disease among the tens of thousands of victims of the storm.<\/p>\n
Cyclone Idai smashed into Beira on March 14, causing catastrophic flooding and killing more than 700 people across three countries in southeast Africa.<\/p>\n
Many badly affected areas in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still inaccessible by road, complicating relief efforts and exacerbating the threat of infection.<\/p>\n
Although there have been no confirmed cholera deaths in medical centres in Mozambique yet, at least two people died outside hospitals with symptoms including dehydration and diarrhoea, the country\u2019s Environment minister Celso Correia said.<\/p>\n
A Reuters reporter saw the body of a dead child being brought out of an emergency clinic in Beira on Wednesday. The child had suffered acute diarrhoea, which can be a symptom of cholera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected this, we were prepared for this, we\u2019ve doctors in place,\u201d Correia said.<\/p>\n
The government said, for the first time, there had been confirmed cholera cases on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mozambique\u2019s National Disaster Management Institute said the local death toll from the tropical storm had increased to 493 people, from 468 previously.<\/p>\n
That takes the total death toll across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi to 738 people, with many more still missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cStranded communities are relying on heavily polluted water. This, combined with widespread flooding and poor sanitation, creates fertile grounds for disease outbreaks, including cholera,\u201d the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation\u2019s Tarik Jasarevic said 900 000 doses of oral cholera vaccine were expected<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of confirmed cases of cholera in the cyclone-hit Mozambican port city of Beira jumped from five to 138 yesterday, as government and aid agencies battled to contain the spread of disease among the tens of thousands of victims of the storm. Cyclone Idai smashed into Beira on March 14, causing catastrophic flooding and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[231,487,340,337,501],"class_list":{"0":"post-6599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-cholera-disease","10":"tag-cyclone","11":"tag-disaster","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-mozambique"},"yoast_head":"\n