afrol News, 6 November - At least 50 people are have died of Cholera in Mozambique's central province of Manica, forcing health officials to declare maximum cholera alert, a top health official has confirmed.

A doctor working in Manica province Ivelia Malora, said death toll has risen to 50, while hundreds remained hospitalised, saying officials suspect that there might be more cases that have not reached the hospital.

"Although death toll is rising, situation is under control and we have isolated the district, nobody can go into and out of the district until cholera infection is under control," she said.

Manica provincial governor, Mauricio Viera, was quoted by daily Noticias on Thursday saying announcing an outbreak was a measure of controlling further spread of the disease to other parts of the province.

The paper also said teams from Medecins sans Frontiers in Tete province, Oxfam, Magariro , and Save the Children Fund had also been sent to affected district to monitor the disease.

Provincial health director Quinhas Fernandes said bodies had been found in remote areas to which some people suffering from the disease had moved after it broke out last week, saying they still suspect that many more people have died outside health posts and in more remote places.

"We are still searching for more bodies in the communities where new infections are being reported," he said.

A government team investigating outbreak said it was caused by people drinking untreated water taken directly from Zambezi and Luenha rivers, and from a nearby lake.

Manica is one of four provinces in Zambezi valley, which was devastated by severe flooding earlier this year.

Officials in the province said at least 40 people had died from a diarrhoea infection in three days after drinking water from a lagoon in a village of Guru district, about 3 500 kilometres north of Maputo near Zimbabwean border.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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