Families Grieve As Infection Kills Loved Ones

Imet Andrew Kazadi just after his 26-year-old nephew died of cholera at a treatment centre in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. He looked deeply traumatised.

“We have been told to look for a coffin but if we delay, they’ll bury him just like that,” Mr Kazadi said, in comments reminiscent of some of the restrictions governments imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, cholera, a bacterial infection caused by contaminated water or food, is wreaking havoc in Zambia, with more than 15,000 cases and close to 600 deaths recorded, mostly in the hotspot of Lusaka, since the beginning of the rainy season in October.

And as clouds gathered over the skies before another downpour, Mr Kazadi said: “We have to hurry to get a coffin.”

I met him outside the 60,000-seater Heroes Stadium, which has been turned into a treatment centre with about 800 medics attending to patients from across the country.

The sound of the wailing sirens of ambulances is constant. Patients are brought in or taken for burial after succumbing to the disease.

For Mr Kazadi, to see the lifeless corpse of Charles, his sister’s son, came as a shock.

Charles suffered a bout of diarrhoea and was vomiting. He was taken to a clinic, where the family was told he had cholera.

He was then transferred to the stadium - normally a venue for football matches - where he died eight days later.

“Our expectation was that he would be fine with the passage of time. We are really grieving as a family,” Mr Kazadi said, pointing out that his nephew has left behind a three-year-old.

But in a sign of the family’s deep faith, he added: “When someone is sick, we commit everything into God’s hands - that person can either die or survive. With all the challenges we have gone through, we just have to thank God.”

In line with government regulations to curb the spread of the disease, Charles’ corpse was wrapped in a body bag, before being placed in the coffin by men wearing protective gear.

The family was not allowed to touch the body to protect them from the risk of infection. Only five relatives were allowed to attend Charles’ burial.

The government’s guidelines are similar to those of the World Health OrganiSation (WHO), which advises that families should handle the body as little as possible, and burials should preferably take place within 24 hours.

“Gastrointestinal infections [like cholera] can easily be transmitted from faeces leaked from dead bodies,” the WHO says.

Sadly, some families in Lusaka are going through a trauma different from that of the Kazadis.