THE government has deployed personnel to the fishing town of Kariba, where 21 cases of cholera have been confirmed while one person has died from the disease.
The cases were recorded from November 6, 2024 from the Gache Gache fishing camp.
Zimbabwe had in July this year declared the end of a cholera outbreak that began in February 2023.
In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Health and Child Care deputy minister Sleiman Kwidini said the government was making efforts to contain cholera in Kariba.
“We sent provincial and district teams to work on stopping further spread of the disease. We will make sure vaccinations are given to people in the area, but generally the issue is not yet out of hand,” he said.
Meanwhile, health lobby group Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) has implored the government to urgently ensure adherence to constitutional, legal and policy provisions on cholera and related diseases.
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In a statement, CWGH executive director Itai Rusike applauded the strides made by the government in the form of the Public Health Act, but decried lack of attention to effective implementation of the positive paperwork.
“To this end, the CWGH urges the government to urgently ensure adherence to its constitutional, legal and policy provisions on cholera and related diseases,” he said.
“We want to see long-lasting and sustainable mechanisms to stop the current and future outbreaks of cholera in order that we regain our dignity and health.”
Rusike said the onset of the rainy season, persistence of water and power challenges, poor sanitation and the piling of uncollected garbage in most towns and cities made it more urgent than ever for the government to take definitive measures before the country plunges yet again into an uncontrollable outbreak.
“This comes at a time when the healthcare services have been struggling. While CWGH acknowledges the current government efforts to contain the spread of the disease by sharing vital preventative information among communities and distributing personal protective equipment, we strongly feel that such actions are piece-meal and divergent from the comprehensive cholera elimination plan which sought to address the root causes of the epidemic,” he said.