Luanda – The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) donated two thousand doses of vaccines to the Angolan government on Wednesday to combat cholera.
There are oral vaccines available to protect healthcare workers who care for patients, as well as to prevent others from being affected by the disease.
Speaking during the ceremony to hand over batches of medicines, Africa CDC representative, Ngashi Ngongo, said that this act aims to respond to the cholera outbreak and express its support for the Angolan government.
He said that they are also providing financing to purchase equipment to protect health professionals, and to guarantee the pills to treat the water that the population will consume.
Ngashi Ngongo expressed his happiness with the fact that Angola went two months without reporting any records of M-Pox, although very recently it announced two cases.
The official informed that in the provinces of Cuanza Norte and Uíge they mobilized 67,000 doses of M-Pox vaccines to help the government of Angola and clarified that the vaccines are from South Korea and in general cost USD 7,500.
In turn, the secretary of State for Public Health, Carlos Pinto de Sousa, highlighted that "this donation plays a crucial role in our response efforts to the epidemic that currently affects 11 provinces of the country with a special incidence in Luanda and Bengo".
“This gesture by CDC Africa and the World Health Organization (WHO) symbolizes a concrete commitment to the protection of environmental laws and the promotion of global health care”, he highlighted.
For him, at a time when Public Health challenges require increasingly close and supportive cooperation, cholera, as a preventable and treatable disease, must be fought with determination and a sense of urgency.
According to the secretary of State, the donation will reinforce immediate efforts to control the epidemic, but also the strategic partnership between Angola and regional and international health institutions, reflecting the importance of health diplomacy. “In strengthening health systems in Africa, we renew our commitment to continue working closely with our partners to ensure that no lives are lost,” he expressed.
So far, the Ministry of Health has vaccinated 600,000 people at a rate of 86%.
Official data indicate that since the beginning of the cholera outbreak in the country, in January this year, 243 deaths have been recorded, 124 in Luanda, 88 in Bengo, 19 in Icolo and Bengo, 5 in Benguela, 4 in Malanje, 2 in Cuanza Sul and one in Cabinda.
As of this Wednesday, March 12, Angola reported a total of 6,764 cases of cholera, detected in 14 of the country's 21 provinces.
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