Cholera Cases Surge in Mozambique in Cyclone-Hit Port City

(Bloomberg) -- Mozambique confirmed 139 cases of cholera in the wake of a tropical cyclone that battered the southern African nation this month and killed more than 460 people.

The outbreak threatens to exacerbate what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described as one of the worst weather-related disasters in Africa’s history. The number of cases of the disease surged from just five a day earlier in the port city of Beira, which bore the brunt of the storm when it made landfall on March 15.

There have been no deaths from the outbreak so far, Ussene Isse, a director at the nation’s Health Ministry, said Thursday by phone.

President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday announced plans for Mozambique to vaccinate 800,000 people against the water-borne disease, which causes diarrhea and can be fatal if untreated.

Mozambique has suffered cholera outbreaks for each of the past six years, according to the World Health Organization. Between August 2017 and February last year, 1,799 people were infected and one died.

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