Mozambique tests cholera vaccine
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22/12/2003 21:24 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1462519,00.html
Maputo - Mozambique has launched a widespread vaccination cam-
paign against cholera to reduce the impact of the water-borne
disease in the southern African state, the government said on
Monday.
"We want to check whether the use of this vaccine, already used
by individual European travellers, can be effective in an epi-
demic situation," Health Minister Fransciso Songane told a news
conference.
Songane said the orally administered vaccine, already approved
by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), was currently being
administered in the port city of Beira.
Beira, the second largest city in the southern African country,
has been seriously hit by cholera epidemics in recent years.
The city has so far registered about 175 cases in the latest
outbreak.
Songane said about 50 000 people would be vaccinated with two
doses, one now and the other in early January.
The co-ordinator of the vaccination campaign, Marcelino Lucas,
said that conclusions from individual administration of the vac-
cine indicated that immunisation could last for at least two
years.
A malaria vaccine has also been tested in Mozambique but results
have not yet been announced.
Between 200 000 and 300 000 malaria related deaths are recorded
annually in Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South
Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The disease is the largest cause of death in Mozambique, par-
ticularly among women and children under five years.
--
Dr Rana Jawad Asghar
Program Manager Child Survival, Mozambique
Provincial Coordinator Sofala Province, Mozambique
Health Alliance International, Seattle, WA, USA
http://depts.washington.edu/haiuw/
Coordinator South Asian Public Health Forum
http://www.saphf.org
mailto:jawad@alumni.washington.edu
http://www.DrJawad.com