The regional director for Africa at the World Health Organization (WHO), Matshidiso Moeti, said this Thursday that the biggest concern is no longer Covid-19, but the cholera outbreak, which is affecting 10 African countries.
“The threat of the covid-19 pandemic is decreasing, now we are more concerned about cholera, which has already spread to 10 countries in Africa and is putting extreme pressure on the limited vaccines that exist worldwide,” Moeti said during a virtual press. Brazzaville conference.
A total of 20,552 new cases of covid-19 were recorded on the continent in the first three weeks of January, representing a 97% decrease compared to the recorded value in the first three weeks of last year, despite an increase in the numbers in South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia, Moeti stressed, admitting that while the numbers could be higher due to low testing rates, most importantly, hospitalizations and deaths have fallen to 88, compared to 9,096 recorded in the same period of 2022.
“For the first time since covid-19 turned our lives upside down, January is not synonymous with an outbreak, and Africa is entering its fourth year of the pandemic in hopes of moving beyond emergency mode, and starting to live with the virus in this new normal,” he said.
At the press conference, WHO also defended the need to include the vaccine against Covid-19 in the normal vaccination plan of African countries.
Cholera is a disease that causes severe diarrheal disease, which is treatable, but can cause death from dehydration if not immediately controlled – largely caused by the ingestion of contaminated food and water due to a lack of sanitation networks.
The ongoing cholera epidemic since March 2022 in Malawi has already claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and 16 people in Mozambique, according to the government.
“We have a total of 1,376 cases of cholera and 16 deaths, which corresponds to a mortality rate of 1.2%,” said Domingos Guiole of the public health surveillance department in Misau, quoted January 16 by private television. President of the Republic itself, Filipe Nyusi, to defend that “hygiene care must be doubled”.
Source: DN
