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MAPUTO. – A health official confirmed that 544 cases of cholera have been recorded so far in northern Mozambique and one of these patients died.

According to local media yesterday, the health director in the province of Nampula, Armindo Tonela, said that the cases of severe diarrhoea in the province recorded since December were caused by cholera, raising concerns in the provincial capital, Nampula City and some other districts.

The Maputo daily Noticias cited Tonela as saying that “currently we are raising awareness about the need to prevent this disease by observing the elementary rules of individual and collective hygiene.”

The Nampula City neighbourhoods of Napipini, Muatala, Matauanha and Carrupeia, which all have serious sanitation problems, are the areas most affected by cholera.

According to the report, local health authorities connect the outbreak of the disease to the drinking of water unfit for human consumption, which is taken from traditional and unprotected wells.

Treatment centres have been opened in the city and in the districts where cholera cases have been reported and committees for preventing and combating diarrhoea diseases have been reactivated. – Xinhua.