Scientific Journal of Eduardo Mondlane University, Serie: Biomedical Sciences and Public Health

RESISTANCE TO THE ADOPTION OF COVID-19 PREVENTION MEASURES IN MOZAMBIQUE

Mónica Frederico — 2025-04-19

The coronavirus novel is the main concern at the moment, and it imposes a constant reinvention of strategies to slow the spread of infections and mitigate their impacts on humans. One strategy taken in Mozambique, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, was the declaration of a state of emergency. However, the risk of increasing the number of COVID-19 infections seems imminent due to the limited compliance of the rules established. To analyze the factors of resistance or apathy to the acceptance and adoption of the preventive actions of COVID-19 and recommend some action for subsequent steps to respond to the pandemic. The study was based on the bibliographic review of existing studies, normative documents (decree), journalistic reports. Thematic analysis was applied, and the themes were defined according to the health belief model. The anarchic housing layout, the high population density, and poor access routes, high number of members per house, poorly structured markets, deficient circulation channels, were the main factors that increase the risk of infection and spread of COVID-19 in Maputo Cidade. These conditions are combined with normative and behavioral issues. A gradual reorganization of the markets and the raising of the awareness of individuals for behavior change in respect to disease are necessary.

COVID-19 AND MULTILINGUISM IN MOZAMBIQUE

Crisófia Langa da Câmara — 2025-04-19

In pandemic contexts, communication is has an important role because it helps in behavior changing, in the identification and timely management of disinformation and ensures the right to health through the assessment of necessary and qualified information about: what disease we are talking about, what is the incubation period, strategies of prevention and symptoms of the disease in the language that each citizen speaks best. In this paper, we analyze the communication strategy adopted in Covid-19 context in Mozambique through the content of spots about the Covid-19 in Nyungwe, Sena, Changana and Copi. The spots analyzed in the present paper show that there was a lack of full information about Covid-19 in Mozambican Bantu languages. In some cases, the speakers received fragmented messages about the disease and in others still, the speakers had naughty information. Thus, in multilingual contexts, such as Mozambique, the health quality information is not guaranteed exclusively through the use of different languages spoken in that context, it is important to observe carefully the content transmitted through them. We propose that MISAU should ensure the right to information about diseases through a screening of the content of the spots in Mozambican languages by leading the process of spots production.

THE MEDIA IN PANDEMIC TIMES: an analyse on efficacy of the message broadcasted by the media to prevent COVID-19 in Mozambique

Arlete Mambo — 2025-04-19

This study is a reflection to check if the message broadcast on the media to prevent and fight COVID-19 is reaching the goals in the Mozambican context. The media mentioned here were selected through intentional sample. So, it was selected Rádio Moçambique (RM), Televisão de Moçambique (TVM) and Monapo and Voz Coop communitarian radios in Maputo and Nampula cities, respectively. The study was based on qualitative approach which privileges the documental analysis, basically the hearing and observing the communication material broadcast on media mentioned above. The analyse was made under the Covid-19 Pandemic prevention and response strategy published by the World Health Organization which gives a special attention on the mobilization of all the sectors and the communities to assume the prevention and response for the pandemic, combined to the human communication approach. The study concluded that the messages broadcast on the studied media don´t reach the goals. It was detected a negligence on prevention measures which reveals divergence between the conduct and the perception of the individuals, on the one hand, and the message released by “Direcção Nacional da Saúde”, on the other hand. For this reason, the study suggests a communication intervention focusing not only on rising awareness, but also on the society education for behaviour changing.

OLD DILEMMAS AND NEW VIRUS: stigma in the days of new coronavirus

Hélio Maúngue — 2025-04-19

The aim of the paper is to analyze the relationship between the new coronavirus and social stigma, its forms of manifestation, social implications, challenges and opportunities for Mozambican society as a whole. This reflection is based on readings of scientific articles, reports and journalistic articles, in addition to other thematically relevant materials, available on websites. Although we found that the manifestations of stigma, in times of COVID-19, started with antagonism towards specific groups (Chinese), in this reflection we found that the virus does not discriminate based on race, nationality, religion, education socioeconomic class. Social stigma must be seen as a crosscutting issue that can accompany the evolution and course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we conclude that, as the virus spreads in Mozambique, it is important that society's actions, as a whole, take into account the issue of social stigma, seeking to quickly map, predict and monitor its effects and consequences. Pay attention to the manifestations of stigma and their implications is important to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 at individual, community and health structures, taking into account that, potentially, to avoid stigma, infected people can hide their state, do not show up at health facilities and continue to establish social contacts as if they were not infected.

Religion in the context of coronavirus pandemic in Mozambique: challenges and opportunities

Chapane Mutiua — 2025-04-19

The present paper analyses the role of religion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Mozambique by mapping the challenges and opportunities it creates in the society. Through the review of literature and observations made by key-informants, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic, on the one side, created important limitations on the religious activities due to the closing of the places of worships. By doing this (closing the sites of collective cults) it created to the religious institution financial problems due to the interruption of collecting the tithe. On the other side, the pandemic situation opened opportunities for the involvement of the religious institutions in campaigns of solidarity that aim to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 in the Mozambican society. We conclude that, on the one side, the great challenges that religion can impose on the society during this pandemic era are situated on the primacy of material prosperity that is based on “false prophecies” preached by some Pentecostal churches; and, on the possibility of generating attitudes and behaviours of religious fanatism as the consequence of the religious discourses that attach the causes of coronavirus on the idea of sin. And on the other hand, the challenges may be situated on the fact that most of the rituals performed in the places of worship in Mozambique and in many other countries of the world (such as trance, sermon, chanting, wafer, and holy communion, the loud recitations), as well as the environmental conditions of the places of worship situate the religious institutions in the top list of the super-spreaders of COVID-19.

COMMUNICATION AND ITS IMPACT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC IN MOZAMBIQUE

Teresa Manjate — 2025-04-19

This article summarizes an analysis of effective and functional public communication as a mechanism for behavior change in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mozambique. The reflection is based on the government's exhortations, particularly through the Ministry of Health (MISAU) and presidential speeches, in the three initial phases. Considering the information conveyed by the media, on the one hand, and the cultural, social and economic reality of the country, on the other, this article argues that effective and functional public communication is a central instrument for controlling and combating of the pandemic. In this context, particular attention is paid to the most vulnerable social groups that do not have the means to access and follow information and advice from the most common media such as television stations, radio stations, including community stations, newspapers, magazines and cyber media such as emails, WhatsApp, portals, SMS, among others.

CONTINGENCY OF RETURNING TO SCHOOL AND PREVENTION OF COVID-19 IN MOZAMBIQUE

Cristiano Matsinhe — 2025-04-19

The advent of coronavirus pandemic led most countries, including Mozambique, to adopt restrictive measures on social mobility and socio-economic activities, including the closure of educational institutions (in presence). The objective of this article is to contribute to the critical reflections and determination of essential parameters to structure strategies to enable safe return to presential classes in the context of COVID-19 and the need to observe prevention and mitigation measures that contribute to make the school environment less susceptible to the spread of infections in Mozambique. This analysis was based on a bibliographic review of thematic materials published on COVID-19 including journalistic articles, normative and legislative documents, interviews with key informants, characterization and categorization of the thematic approaches derived from the listed materials and sources. The presidential announcement about the contingency of returning to in presence classes exacerbated social tension, polarizing society between those in favor and those who understand that it is not yet time to return to presential classes safely, with both extremes informed by relevant assumptions, such as the course of the epidemic curve and the structural challenges for the implementation of the prevention and mitigation protocols of COVID-19 in schools, as stipulated by the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and the Ministry of Health of Mozambique (MISAU). Although the polarization of positions on return to school focuses on issues related to the preservation of the economic structure and the weaknesses of school infrastructure, there is a whole dialogic and communication emphasis on the national response to the pandemic that must be re-articulated and disseminated in order to engage different constituencies and society in understanding the social and economic implications of the options and scripts that the country can adopt in order to enable a safe return to educational and productive routines, essential for social reproduction. In this perspective, deliberation on return to face-to-face classes should focus on the consideration and implementation of what can be done to ensure that the resumption of suspended activities can be done in a safe and epidemiologically relevant manner, in the structural conditions that characterize the country.