Cholera cases confirmed in northern Mozambique after heavy rains, flooding

"In the last 10 days, 22 cases of the waterborne disease cholera have been confirmed by laboratory testing in three areas in and around the northern Mozambique town of Pemba, in Cabo Delgado Province," IRIN reports. "Leonard Heyerdahl, project manager of Africhol -- an initiative of Paris-based NGO Agence de Médecine Préventive that is working in cooperation with the government's National Institute of Health (NIH) -- told IRIN that from 30 January, 'samples started turning positive [for cholera],'" the news service writes, noting, "Prior to that, there were 366 cases of severe diarrhea caused by the salmonella bacteria."

"Heavy rains, flooding, displacement and poor access for humanitarian assistance are creating an ideal environment for the proliferation of cholera" in the country, according to IRIN, which notes a U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) situation report from February 8 "said about '213,000 people have been affected by floods in Mozambique since October 2012'" (2/8).