This week for my region report I looked at articles about Sub Saharan Africa and an article that really interested me was about the number of cases of cholera in Mozambique, a country in south east Africa that borders Zimbabwe and Zambia. Mozambique is a country that touches the water on the east of Africa, making it a very good place for ports and trade access. However, due to its location and economy, it is also a target area for cyclones and poor drinking water quality. Recently the southern African nation’s government released that the number of confirmed cases of cholera in the cyclone-devastated port city of Beira have nearly doubled to 271 in the past couple of days. Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine which causes severe vomiting and diarrhea, typically contracted from infected water supplies. The Mozambique government and aid workers are working to contain the spread of cholera after the cyclone hit into Beira on March 14. This hit caused catastrophic flooding which ended up killing more than 700 people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Thankfully, there has been a temporary treatment center opened in Beira to aid victims of both the natural disaster and infections. Many areas in Mozambique and Zimbabwe that were hit very hard by the storm still cannot even be accessed by road. And I assume in southern Africa, most countries do not have much access to air planes or helicopters for safety rescues and hospital runs. It is known that cholera is an endemic to Mozambique, which has led to regular outbreaks over the past five years. Almost 2,000 people were infected in the last outbreak which ended only in February of 2018, according to the government. The Mozambique authorities said on Saturday that the number of deaths from the cyclone are at about 501, bringing the total of fatalities across Mozambique, Zimbabwe, in Malawi way to about 746.
