Maputo — The Mozambican Health Ministry is striving to ensure continued supplies of cholera and malaria drugs to face the new outbreaks of these diseases during the present rainy season, reports Wednesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".

A report of the "Roll Back Malaria" campaign points out that there are many health units in the country that lack both the necessary equipment and sufficient drugs to combat malaria.

Thus it recommends the acquisition of microscopes and other equipment, and also a civic education campaign to persuade people to seek medical care at the first sign of sickness.

For his part, the Deputy National Health Director, Avertino Barreto, has said that so far, cholera has been diagnosed in Niassa, Cabo Delgado, and Nampula provinces in the north of the country, and in Sofala in the central region. He blamed the outbreak on poor sanitation conditions made worse by the persistent rainfall.

The most recent reports counted 12 deaths due to cholera out of 500 cases diagnosed in the affected provinces.

The health authorities are concerned over the increase in the number of cholera cases in Sofala, where the figures rose from two to 56 within a week.

The head of the Community Health department in this province, Virginia Saldanha, said that about five patients are being admitted with cholera every day in the city of Beira, which led to the reopening of a special cholera ward functioning in an old warehouse.

She said that to face the situation, all health units have been supplied with chlorine in enough quantities to treat drinking water for local people.