Maputo — The Mozambican Health Ministry regards the cholera situation as "stationary" in the five northern and central provinces hit by the disease this year.

The Ministry's spokesperson, Leonardo Chavana, told reporters on Thursday that in the previous 24 hours several new cases of the disease had been notified, but no deaths were reported.

In the central province of Zambezia there had been 12 new cases, in Cabo Delgado nine cases were reported, in Nampula six and in Sofala five. In the sixth province affected, Niassa, there were no new cases at all.

The worst hit province is Zambezia. Since 1 January, there have been 1,188 cases notified in Zambezia and 19 deaths. The figures for Cabo Delgado are 679 cases and seven deaths, and for Niassa 543 cases and 13 deaths. Sofala has reported 241 cases and one death, and Nampula 167 cases and one death.

Chavana said that the outbreaks have slowed down because of the major health education efforts undertaken, not only by health workers, but also by members of the government and by civil society organisations, who have all "multiplied the messages about the precautions that should be taken".

Nonetheless, he feared it would take a long time before all the communities in the affected areas came to accept that only through measures of individual and collective hygiene, decent sanitation and proper treatment of drinking water would it be possible to eliminate cholera.

So far no cases of cholera have been reported from the southern provinces. But Chavana said that, because of the heavy rains in the south over the past few days, the authorities are on the alert for possible outbreaks.