Health Minister wants to create vaccination teams in Cabo Delgado

Mozambique’s health minister acknowledged this Wednesday the “specific situation” at vaccination sites in Cabo Delgado, a province ravaged by armed insurgency since 2017, protecting mobile immunization teams at reception centers.

“The situation in Cabo Delgado is peculiar (…) Our goal is to ensure that, in coordination with the Defense and Security Forces, in every corner of the country where there is a need for vaccination, we have our teams,” said Armindo Thiago on the sidelines of the opening of Africa Week vaccinations today in Maputo.

The official said health authorities had invested in creating mobile teams, especially at reception centers for families fleeing violence in areas further north in the province.

“The task of the mobile teams is to reach the most remote groups of the population,” emphasized Armindo Thiago.

Between 8 and 12 January, Mozambican authorities vaccinated 2,268,548 people over 1 year of age in four provinces against cholera.

The target group for this vaccination operation was 2,271,136 people, which corresponds to the population living in the most vulnerable areas and the focus of the current outbreak, the Ministry of Health said.

In May, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that there would be a global shortage of cholera vaccines by 2025 and that one billion people in 43 countries could be infected with the disease, citing Mozambique in October as having one of the highest incidence rates. countries at risk.

The province has faced an armed insurgency for six years, with the extremist group Islamic State claiming responsibility for some attacks.

The insurgency, which has intensified since December 2023 with several attacks on the population and military forces, has led to a military response since July 2021, supported first by Rwanda with more than 2,000 troops, and by SADC liberating areas near gas projects.