The waterborne disease, which spreads through drinking
water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium which causes severe
diarrhoea and vomiting, is now endemic in the country.
In a notice, the Harare City Council said three of the
cases were linked to Buhera where there was a cholera outbreak last week, while
two other cases were contracted from local sources.
“The city would like to inform residents that it has now
five confirmed cholera cases in Hopely Zone 5, Stoneridge, Southlands, Granary
and Adbernie Mbare. We urge all residents in these affected areas and greater
Harare to take necessary precautions to avoid contracting cholera,” council
said.
Deputy mayor Kudzai Kadzombe told NewsDay that the council
was taking steps to contain the outbreak.
“As a council we are working on increasing water production
and our Beatrice Infectious Hospital is actually ready for any case that can
arise. We have our employees on standby waiting for any case,” Kadzombe said.
Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai
Rusike said recurrent cholera outbreaks were concerning
“Zimbabwe needs to strengthen the primary health care
principles and the laws regarding public health which explicitly state that
communities have a big role to play in public health, but they need an enabling
environment for them to do so effectively,” Rusike said.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo urged locals
to exercise caution in order to stop the disease from spreading.
“This is a very preventable disease and it can be fatal if
not treated. People should practise hygiene. It’s all about washing hands and
drinking clean water,” Dongo said.
Meanwhile, the Health and Child Care ministry has banned
church camp meetings, open markets, communal beer gatherings among other
measures to curb the spread of cholera in Zaka, Masvingo.
The 2008 cholera outbreak, which started in Harare and
later spread into neighbouring countries, was the deadliest — killing more than
4 000 people and affecting over 100 000 others. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment