HARARE – The European Union (EU) has warned that up to 500,000 people
may be carrying the deadly cholera bacteria in southern Africa without
knowing it and risked infecting other unsuspecting victim throughout
the region.
Announcing the approval of an additional €5.5 million aid package last
week, the European body said forecasts by medical staff from the
European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) who recently
visited Zimbabwe showed that thousands of Zimbabweans were
asymptomatic careers of the cholera bacteria.
In Zimbabwe, the very serious prognosis of UN agencies and NGO
partners with regard to the evolution of this epidemic is confirmed by
forecasts established by ECHO’s medical staff, who note that 50,000
cumulative cases means that there are probably more than 500,000
asymptomatic carriers spreading the disease all around, and probably
outside, the country, the organisation said.
It noted that the epidemic in Zimbabwe had not peaked in January when
the EU medical team visited the country, which makes it difficult to
forecast how many additional cases would be reported.
The EU last week approved an additional humanitarian aid package to
fight the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and other southern African
countries as the death toll from the epidemic soars past 4,200 in
Zimbabwe alone.
It said interventions to be funded from the assistance would mainly
focus on Zimbabwe although they may extend to other countries of the
southern African region.
Zimbabwe is battling a six-month cholera outbreak blamed on a breakdown of the country's water and sewer systems.
The World Health Organisation estimated that about 3,900 people had
died from the outbreak by February 25 while a total 84,000 cases had
been reported since August 2008.
The EC said the funds made available would be used to provide curative
and preventive care – including access to clean water to populations in
cholera outbreak areas – in order to prevent the spread of the disease
and unnecessary deaths.
The funding would target provision of clean water and vulnerable groups
such as under-five children, elderly people as well as pregnant and
breastfeeding women.
Implementation of humanitarian aid actions funded by the package would
be up to June this year after which the European body would reassess
the programme.
Eight countries of the southern African region have been reporting
cholera cases since the last quarter of 2008, with the largest
outbreaks in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi and Zambia.