Measures to contain cholera implemented

THE Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee has integrated the assessment of how urban populations have been affected by non-communicable and communicable diseases such as cholera to create interventions that will prevent future outbreaks.

The country has been reporting cholera cases since February last year and has to date recorded 24 332 suspected cholera cases, 2 515 confirmed cases, 71 confirmed deaths and 455 suspected deaths.

While measures to contain the outbreak have been implemented, experts have said there is a need to put in place systems that will prevent the recurrence of such outbreaks.

The ongoing Zimbabwe urban livelihoods assessment has sought to find the key drivers of cholera and the level of knowledge about the disease by communities. It has also incorporated other diseases such as HIV and AIDS, diabetes and hypertension among others to determine how they affect people’s livelihoods.

Ms Mavis Dembedza, a nutritionist in the Food and Nutrition Council, said it was important to have data on how people’s livelihoods were being affected by various diseases.

“So for this year we are looking at assessing the prevalence of non-communicable diseases as well as communicable diseases like cholera and today as you have seen, we are in Kuwadzana which is one of the hotspots for cholera. It is also important that as much as we are looking at the livelihoods of the general population, we do not leave the most vulnerable and these are people who are living with NCDs including HIV and AIDS so that we inform programming that are targeting those groups,” she said.

Enumerators were asking the population about their knowledge of cholera, their practices and perceptions if they are at risk of getting cholera.

This, she said, would give them an outlook of the knowledge perceptions of the general public with regards to cholera.

“It is always important that we do assessments that inform programming that prevent NCDs and communicable diseases. For the country it is cheaper to do preventive measures than trying to get medical care to cater for diseases when they manifest. The country will spend more for medication and mitigation strategies whenever we have an outbreak so it is much better to prevent it before it breaks out,” added Ms Dembedza.

Residents said the cholera outbreak was an indicator of the need for better systems that will protect the people against such preventable diseases.