Harare on cholera alert as diarrhoea cases spike

Harare health services have said that the city is monitoring high cases of diarrhoea to avert a cholera disaster like the 2008 one.

“We urge the general public to be on high alert because currently there is a cholera outbreak in Malawi and Mozambique, and if we do not manage this properly, we will be affected,” said Harare City council director of health services Dr Prosper Chonzi.

He said no cholera case has been recorded in the city. Malawi death toll is in the hundreds from the current outbreak.

“Currently, we are testing any suspected case of diarrhoea at all our clinics and we are offering treatment free of chargeWe have activated our rapid response team; we are very alert and we have initiated contact tracing on suspected cases,” said Dr Chonzi.

He said the city has initiated mobilisation of vital medicines and treatment regimens in anticipation of a major outbreak.

“In hospitals and clinics that are treating diarrhoea, we have stockpiled requisite medicines and sundries,” he said.

“We have also secured drips (intravenous fluid) and mobilised a number of environmental officers and community health workers so that they start home visits to see if there are no reported cases.

“We are trying by all means to manage this because we do not want history to repeat itself like what happened in 2008,” he said.

There was a total of 98,585 reported cases and 4,287 deaths in the 2008 Zimbabwe cholera outbreak.

Dr Chonzi said the alert has gone up as weekly cases of diarrhoea have risen to three three digits over the past four weeks:

“We are recording about 250 to 270 cases of diarrhoea per week. From October 24 to November 20, we recorded 1 115 cases.”

He said in the period the city has recorded between five and six cases of typhoid weekly.

Dr Chonzi said terrible service delivery by the city authorities is endangering residents.

“These cases are mainly in high-density suburbs, where there is inadequate running water, no refuse collection and sewage bursts,” said Dr Chonzi.

Harare mayor Jacob Mafume has promised improved service delivery with the city recently commissioning 48 service vehicles.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/1283/harare-procures-48-service-delivery-vehicles

The city also said that refuse trucks would increase collection regularity as they will now take loads to local compacting points and not drive all the way to Pomona.