Health actors in Zimbabwe have taken emergence response to curb Cholera outbreak
By Memory Mudzani
Cholera is currently one of the major public health emergencies facing Southern African countries, including Zimbabwe.
A Cholera outbreak which hit Zimbabwe with a handful of cases in February has seen the number of infections shooting to over 2,000 cases as of May 29, 2023.
Some key health actors in Zimbabwe like the Ministry of Health and Child care (MoHCC), UNICEF, community working group on health (CWGH), Local authorities and WHO Zimbabwe have taken emergency response efforts to cholera out break.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) has led the primary response efforts in activating rapid response teams in each of the affected districts whilst daily stakeholder meetings are being held to coordinate cholera control activities ,they also establish treatment camps in Cholera hotspots to attend to suspected cases.
MoHCC is also distributing emergency health supplies and kits to district health centers, conducting education awareness programmes in the provinces and producing daily situational reports.
In response to the current outbreak, local authorities are under pressure to ensure uninterrupted supply of properly chemically treated water is supplied to affected communities, they are stopping all operations by unlicensed shops, unregistered food outlets and illegal vendors from operating in open spaces and also they sanction all schools, office spaces, shops, restaurants, and food outlets to have clean toilets with running water and sanitizers.
The United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has stepped up efforts to fighting the Cholera outbreaks around Zimbabwe through wide distribution of millions of water treatment tablets to ensure families in impacted communities have access to safe water, supplying local health departments with oral rehydration salt sachets and zinc, in addition to providing acute watery diarrhea kits to treat moderate and severe cases.
UNICEF has also increased access to ready-to-use therapeutic food, as malnutrition is a leading cause of death from Cholera, Conducting community awareness and risk communication campaigns to spread health and hygiene measures and mobilizing essential lifesaving support, including emergency health supplies, medical products and technical support for outbreak control.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has actively participated in the emergency relief programme by donating Cholera kits and medical supplies to the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) in Zimbabwe.
WHO Zimbabwe is also conducting capacity building initiatives to strengthen response activities through critical training of health care workers, improvement of case management, data analysis, utilization on Cholera guidelines as well as enhancing surveillance on the ground, for early detection and response.
The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) has been using its national structures to raise awareness on the latest Cholera outbreak
According to CWGH executive director Itai Rusike Zimbabwe will continue suffering regular outbreaks until it resolves water and sanitation problems in urban and semi-urban settlements and massively improves health delivery services.
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