Residents of Nairoto, in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, vandalised the local health centre in another case of misinformation about cholera in the country, causing health workers to flee, an official source said today.
“The Nairoto Health Unit was vandalised, resulting in its closure and the withdrawal of health technicians for security reasons,” Eugénia Assusse, provincial chief doctor of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, told Lusa in Pemba.
Without specifying the exact day of the vandalism, she explained that the unrest in this locality of Montepuez district was caused by disbelief in the existence of cholera in the area, despite the ongoing outbreak and rising cases in the province, which will receive a vaccination campaign this week.
This situation — which has repeated in recent years in other parts of central and northern Mozambique due to misinformation about the disease — means that the population of the Nairoto administrative post, where a cholera outbreak is occurring, now has to travel almost 100 kilometres to receive medical treatment.
“This has led the population to make their own way to the district headquarters of Montepuez seeking assistance, which has obviously resulted in cholera cases appearing at the district centre,” the source said.
To mitigate the situation, a team of military doctors has been deployed to provide assistance to the people of Nairoto.
“Unfortunately, the health area does not currently have the capacity to respond to the outbreak through the health sector colleagues; however, a military medical team was mobilised and is working there,” she explained.
Eugénia Assusse added that there are also difficulties in Mecúfi district, following the assault on Sunday of a community leader in Nimanro, amid the same misinformation scenario.
“The community leader was attacked because we have incoming cholera cases from that health area,” she said.
Mozambique recorded 334 new cholera cases and 22 deaths in the last four days of January, bringing the total to 59 fatalities since the start of this outbreak in September, according to data compiled by Lusa today from official bulletins.
According to the latest disease bulletin from the National Directorate of Public Health, covering 3 September to 31 January, of the total 3,867 cholera cases recorded in this period, 1,643 were in Nampula province with 21 deaths, 1,525 in Tete with 28 deaths, and 609 in Cabo Delgado with eight deaths.
In the previous report, up to 30 January, there were 3,725 cholera cases, including 135 new patients and 12 deaths in the preceding 24 hours. On 31 January, 104 new cases and four deaths were recorded, while on 28 January there were 95 cases and 12 deaths.
The current epicentre of the outbreak is Tete province, in the centre of the country, with a fatality rate of 1.8%, compared to the national rate of 1.5%, and 44 new patients in the previous 24 hours (31 January), according to the same data. The outbreak remains active in the districts of Marara, Tsangano, Moatize, Changara, Cahora Bassa and Tete, as well as Morrumbala, a district in the neighbouring Zambézia province.
However, in Cabo Delgado a new outbreak has recently been declared in the districts of Mecufi and Montepuez, in addition to the active outbreaks in Pemba and Metuge. The latest report also states that an outbreak has been declared in Guro district, Manica province, in central Mozambique.
In the previous cholera outbreak, according to the National Directorate of Public Health data from 17 October 2024 to 20 July 2025, there were 4,420 infections, of which 3,590 were in Nampula province, and a total of 64 deaths.
Mozambican authorities plan to vaccinate more than 1.7 million people from 4 to 8 February in four provinces: Niassa (Lago), Cabo Delgado (Metuge and Pemba), Zambézia (Quelimane) and Sofala (Beira), it was announced today.
Source: Lusa