**Conflict of interest**

*Healthcare Access - Regional Overviews*

mobilizers during the entire campaign.

solutions might arise from unexpected variables.

confirmed cases of cholera in Pemba, Metuge, and Mecufi.

**6. Post-conclusive note**

experience with this approach, and there is some acceptance [23]. Second, it is important to coordinate the process with the authorities at neighborhood levels or small communities, where information is easy to spread, and it is also easy to record the number of residents or households in order to keep track of individuals absent during each round and organize catch-up rounds. Baltazar et al. [23] also suggested short-term effectiveness studies, but these have been done and reported by Dengo-Baloi et al. [7] from the same research team. Perhaps the results had not yet been analyzed when Baltazar et al. [23] had already completed their report. To maximize adherence, Botão et al. [8] suggested sensibilization of the population through identification of credible leaders and other influential individualities to function as

Salência et al. [11] discussed about the indiscriminate use of antibiotic to children with acute diarrhea as a violation of WHO guidelines, and the authors appealed for the optimization of prescription of antibiotics for diarrhea. The authors are correct, but the issue requires perhaps more attention, considering that WHO guidelines result from the international consensus and, in general, physicians are expected to be aware of the dangers of antibiotic overprescription, and this practice is often most likely an act of negligence. Thus, there should be penalties to discourage such kind of misconduct because it is a sensitive public health matter. The National Health Institute and partners shall keep organizing the National Health Journeys and similar events because they are very constructive platforms in which researchers, scholars, and health professionals can share information and broaden their scope regarding the reality of cholera and other diseases in Mozambique. Such events should be more frequent and organized all over the country to give opportunities to people residing in other areas than the capital city. It would perhaps be a very good idea to promote conferences about the control of cholera or diarrheic diseases in areas of high incidence and engage local health professionals or potential actors who can really influence the current

The final recommendation is based on the words of Chissaque et al. [10] in their summary: the key to control cholera and other diarrheic diseases is a deep understanding of the local epidemiology. Such comprehension would facilitate predictions and planning on how to prevent outbreaks and manage them if they eventually happen. Mozambique could study carefully experiences from other countries where cholera is endemic, such as India or Bangladesh, and understand how they deal with the matter or at least draw some comparisons and interact with foreign scientists. The contexts are surely different, but the problem is similar, and

There will be soon more updates on cholera in Mozambique because there were two major outbreaks [40, 64, 65], one still ongoing as this manuscript is under preparation [66]. They are related to the intense tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth that made landfall in Mozambique's central and northern provinces, respectively [67]. According to Miller and Adebayo [37], Kenneth it is the strongest cyclone recorded in the country, and together the tragedies certainly caused the biggest losses since the flood in 2000 [68]. Briefly, Devi [40] said that up to April 20, the Ministry of Health had declared an outbreak due to Idai, and there had been at least 4979 cases of cholera and 6 deaths. Regarding Kenneth, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) [64] declared that as of 12 May, there were 149

**144**

situation.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.
