Responding to health needs in Mozambique in wake of Cyclone Chido

Rafael Daniel, a 42-year-old labourer from Mecufi, a district of Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique, had a small wound on his lower leg before Cyclone Chido made landfall. “I was at home during the cyclone and my house was completely damaged,” he says. “During the cyclone, rubble from the damage scraped over my wound and it got bigger, and my children suffered head injuries.”

Mecufi, situated at the northern entrance of the Mozambique channel (the western arm of the Indian Ocean) is the one of the three hardest hit districts, with reports are that all its houses are damaged, with 400 families left homeless, and five of its health facilities destroyed.

WHO is supporting the emergency health response in all three provinces. In Mecufi, to respond to the immediate health needs of injured people, the Organization has set up a tent to act as an infirmary, delivered medicine and medical supplies and deployed health emergency officers.

Here Daniel received the medical treatment he needed for his leg. “The service at the WHO tent is very good because most of the population needs this service,” he says. “But it’s still not enough, it’s the first phase. What they are doing is very good, but we need more. We need more medicines to replace what the hospital provided.” He adds that infrastructure like roads need to be rebuilt so that access to phones and banking services can be restored.

Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Management is leading the multisectoral humanitarian response in the affected provinces. This includes coordination of humanitarian partners to ensure effective collaboration and regular coordination meetings to streamline response efforts.

The Ministry of Health has also deployed six specialist physicians to Cabo Delgado and ramped up infectious disease surveillance. This is the face of an ongoing cholera outbreak in Nampula Province, declared on 28 October, in which 260 cases and 20 deaths have been reported.

Furthermore, the cyclone has affected an already vulnerable population in Cabo Delgado, where an armed conflict has raged for six years.

Local health authorities, who have been affected personally and professionally by the cyclone, are trying to rebuild health services in the face of damage and shortages.

Rosário Samuel is the director of the Mecufi Health Centre. He was at home with his children when the cyclone struck. While they all survived, the house was damaged and the family was unable to save their possessions. Nevertheless, he is at the health centre every day, trying to clean up and offer basic health services.

“Since I am responsible for the health facility, I spend a lot of time here and I want to prioritize this over even my own house,” says Samuel. “We need to rebuild it for the population because our greatest value is life. We cannot leave people without the basic necessity of health services. We will take care of our personal needs afterwards.”

WHO has conducted rapid assessments to identify health needs in two districts in Nampula and three districts in Cabo Delgado. The Organization has also deployed 12 emergency health officers to the two provinces to support local health systems and form part of multisectoral rapid response teams.

“The effects of the cyclone have devastated people’s homes and lives in these regions of Mozambique,” says Emiliano Lucero, WHO’s Health Cluster coordinator and team leader in Pemba. “It is going to take time to recover and rebuild. WHO will continue to support health authorities in this emergency response and in longer-term efforts to restore essential health services to people who are in need of them.”

In Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, the Organization has prepositioned essential drugs and supplies for immediate health interventions. From this stock WHO has donated 4 tonnes of medical supplies and equipment, including tents, medicine, and cholera kits, which can treat 60 mild and 40 severe cases in Mecufi.

For residents, recovery will be slow and painful as the memory of the cyclone persists and its devastation, a daily reminder. “I was very scared,” says Nicolauson Zaet, a pharmacy technician from Natuco Health Centre in Cabo Delgado. “I didn’t think I could survive because I wasn’t inside the house. I was outside, watching metal sheets flying from one side to the other and I was afraid they might hit me directly.”

Thankfully Zaet survived, although he is now uncertain of what the future holds. “The cyclone destroyed all the progress I had made; the cyclone took it away,” he says. “My dream now is to bring my normal life back.”