Shelter kits are unloaded from a relief flight at Pemba airport on 2 May 2019 in northern Mozambique, to support the Cyclone Kenneth aid response. Photo: IOM
Shelter kits are unloaded from a relief flight at Pemba airport on 2 May 2019 in northern Mozambique, to support the Cyclone Kenneth aid response. Photo: IOM

By Nita Bhalla
7 May 2019

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Aid workers were on Tuesday racing to contain a cholera outbreak in northern Mozambique after a powerful cyclone contaminated water sources and damaged health clinics.

Cyclone Kenneth crashed into the province of Cabo Delgado on April 25, flattening entire villages and killing more than 40 people. More than 200,000 people are estimated to be affected.

Reported cases of cholera in the province have risen almost five-fold to 64 since the outbreak was officially declared on 2 May 2019, according to the United Nations.

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was providing tents, water and sanitation equipment for a cholera treatment center in the port city of Pemba, which was badly hit by the storm.

“We have two essential goals now: saving the lives of severely sick patients and containing the outbreak,” said Danielle Borges, MSF project coordinator in Pemba.

“We need to isolate and treat sick people so they recover, and so that they do not contaminate others. We need to make sure that people stop using infected water, and we should do all we can to prevent people from getting sick.” [more]

Aid workers race to contain cholera outbreak in cyclone-hit Mozambique