After cyclone “Idai” is the fear that diseases spread. At least in the bigger cities, international volunteers are in the meantime, however. What can you do? What problems do they face?

The mood in the shelters in Beira is not bad at all. At least there’s food and tents and in the middle of the helpers of the Red cross. With mouth protection and gloves, parts of water and electrolyte solutions. Because hundreds of people need to be treated.

The fight against Cholera, typhoid and Malaria is not easy. The German disaster medical Oliver Hoffmann of the Johanniter foreign aid describes the hospital in Nhamatanda, in the North-West of Beira: There were many cases of malaria and diarrhea and many injured. Of 18 treatment, eight had rooms unusable. “It flew away, the entire roof because it is wet in there.”

In the larger cities, there are, as here in a warehouse of the Red cross in Beira.

Many of the places have the helper has not yet reached

The international aid workers have become a large area, but still not all the places reached. Time was of the essence, says Anja Borojevic of Doctors without borders. “The diseases that are transmitted by water, are on the rise, the health of the people is in danger. The challenge now is to reach the most remote areas, some of which are still under water, so people get everything in order to stay healthy.”

The bad hygiene situation, and unclean drinking water are the main problems. In Mozambique Cholera out breaks for years now, quite regularly, after the cyclone, which is now the biggest concern. Almost a Million SIP of vaccinations against the disease should arrive on Monday in Maputo. The world health organization has sent you on the way.

The THW takes care of the supply of people with drinking water.

“There are only four public toilets”

the Agency for Technical relief packs. In Nhangau, for example, a good 15 kilometers from the Beira, it cleans the water in the fountain and frees it from germs. “So that we can make a significant contribution in the fight against the Cholera, says THW-einsatzleiter Jens-Olaf Knapp. As a next step, the wells should be set back to maintain.

“And we will also have to deal with the topic of ‘plumbing’,” says Knapp. “There are only four public toilets. That is not enough, of course.”

The disaster after the cyclone is not over yet for a long time. The harvest of 500,000 hectares of arable land, it estimates that the world’s hunger, has simply been washed away – and that alone in Mozambique, a country in which almost every second child is already malnourished. On food aid, Zimbabwe and Malawi will need and how relief organizations estimate at least a year.

In the shelters there are food. However, the harvest is destroyed in many areas.

After cyclone “Idai”: the risk for epidemics is increasing
Jana Genth, ARD Johannesburg
29.03.2019 23:37 PM

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: help for the victims of hurricane “Idai” number of Cholera cases in Mozambique is increasing, 29.03.2019 risk for epidemics is increasing, Jana Genth, ARD Johannesburg |audio Atlas |Mozambique |Beira

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