Two health centers have been closed for about two months due to misinformation about cholera in the Monapo district, in Nampula, northern Mozambique, affecting at least 70,000 people, an official source told Lusa today.
“The health units have been closed for approximately two months due to threats that health providers were receiving at the local level; they obviously also had to safeguard their lives, and they had to withdraw from the units, and they remained closed for this entire period,” Nalcil Baisson, a doctor and head of the public health department at the Provincial Health Directorate in Nampula, told Lusa.
According to the official, health professionals suffered “very strong and conclusive threats” in the Monapo district due to misinformation about cholera, leading to the interruption of services for about 70,000 inhabitants, who are now forced to travel long distances in search of medical assistance.
“During this period when they are closed [the health units], unfortunately, the population must travel long distances to find health services. We have the Monapo penitentiary, it has a health post there. Well, it is a health post with basic services, and the population ends up resorting to this [also]… to ensure assistance,” said Nalcil Baisson.
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The doctor stated that the reopening of the health centers was scheduled for this week, following several meetings between the district government and the community.
“We are now waiting for the final report from the district government, which is intervening directly in this case, to ensure the provision of health services in those two health units,” added the official.
In addition to Monapo, Nalcil Baisson pointed to the districts of Nacala Porto, Mogincual, Ilha de Moçambique, Meconta, Nacala Velha, and Mossuril as having active cholera outbreaks, while Mogovolas, Moma, Eráti, and Memba were officially declared free of the disease.
Baisson also said that an investigation is underway, led by the Mozambican National Institute of Health and involving anthropologists and sociologists, to determine the causes of the “constant misinformation” about cholera affecting Nampula and the country, despite awareness campaigns carried out by health authorities.
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In March, the same source warned that misinformation is hindering awareness actions regarding the origin and prevention of cholera in Nampula, one of the main epicenters of the disease, with reports of “assaults and destruction of the homes of local leaders, including multipurpose agents.”
The Mozambican Minister of Health also warned in March about the impact of misinformation about cholera, stressing that 74% of deaths caused by the disease occur in communities because patients do not seek health services.
Nampula has a cumulative total of 3,797 cholera cases and 39 deaths, according to the latest data update bulletin from the National Directorate of Public Health (DNSP).
Mozambique recorded 100 cholera cases in the last week, surpassing 8,600 infected in the current epidemic since September, but the numbers are slowing down and there have been no deaths for more than a month, according to DNSP data.
Between the end of February and the beginning of March, Mozambican health authorities recorded more than 100 new infections daily, with active outbreaks in about 25 districts of the country, indicators that have been falling in recent weeks, associated with the end of the rainy season (October to April).
