HARARE Zimbabwe on Tuesday said it had finally ended a cholera epidemic that began last August, killing more than 4 000 people out of more than 98 000 infections, in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) said was the worst outbreak of the disease in Africa in 15 years. (Pictured: . . cholera patients in a makeshift clinic in a Harare subHealth Minister Paul Madzorera would not rule out a fresh outbreak of the disease but said Zimbabwes health system was now better placed to control and a future outbreak.
The cholera epidemic is finished now, it is gone, said Madzorera, a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais MDC party that agreed to form a unity government with President Robert Mugabes ZANU PF party to tackle Zimbabwes multifaceted crisis, including the cholera outbreak.
We are declaring that cholera has now ended. I hope it will not occur again. Our severance systems are now high. We are more prepared than we were in August last year, Madzorera told a press briefing in Harare.
Cholera quickly spread across Zimbabwe fuelled by a collapsed public health sector that lacked both drugs and trained staff.
Dysfunctional water and sewer systems in urban areas only exacerbated the cholera crisis, which could have caused thousands more deaths were it not for the WHO and other relief agencies that quickly moved in with medical supplies and other aid to battle to the epidemic.
The new Harare government has moved fast to try tot revive the public health system and to restore water and sewerage treatment facilities in cities and towns.
But independent health experts and United Nations (UN) agencies say Zimbabwes water and sanitation services remain weak while the public health system still faces too many problems making a fresh outbreak of cholera highly likely when the new rainy season starts in less than five months time.
In a report released last week the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said most Zimbabweans still had no access to safe water, raising the risk of catching cholera in the event of an outbreak.
Highlighting fears within the international community that Zimbabwe remained at risk of a new cholera attack, WHO representative in Zimbabwe Castodia Mandhlate said the international health agency had bought strategic stocks of drugs to combat a possible outbreak of the disease.
We had a lot of community death that we would like to prevent. We are happy to hear that government had provided resources for water management because that is the real cause of the disease, said Mandhlate, speaking at the same press conference addressed by Madzorera.
The final figures on cholera cases and deaths as at 15 July released by the UNs OCHA last week stood at 98 592 infections and 4 288 deaths.
Post published in: Analysis