Maputo — Mozambican health minister Ussene Isse has announced that radiotherapy equipment has once again been damaged as result of an electrical failure in Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the country's largest health facility.

This means that cancer patients cannot be treated with radiotherapy because of failure of the equipment, which had been reintroduced two months ago after 15 months in which it was out of service.

The radiotherapy service at HCM was introduced in 2019. The construction and equipping of the hospital's oncology section cost 17 million dollars. The HCM became the only public health facility in the country providing radiotherapy.

According to Isse, the problem is being solved and the government is committed to restoring the service promptly.

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"The failure occurred due to a power surge, which damaged a circuit board responsible for connecting the machine's components', he said. "The malfunction destroyed this board, which was not available in the country. We had to order it from abroad, and it has now arrived in Maputo.'

"Technical teams are already working intensively to restore the service. There is no rest. We must return this treatment to the Mozambican people as urgently as possible', he added.

The minister said "I don't like to set a timeframe, because that creates unnecessary pressure. But I can guarantee that this malfunction is different from the previous one and has a solution. We believe it will be solved soon.'

Since that most of our population cannot afford treatment abroad, he said,' we will do everything we can to speed up this process and bring back radiotherapy as quickly as possible. We know that this is the only machine in the country', he added.