Don’t politicise cholera fight, says minister

GOVERNMENT has appealed against politicizing the cholera epidemic preparedness programme embarked on by the Ministry of Health.

Minister of Health, Chitalu Chilufya said the move to clear Lusaka central business district was a bipartisan action aimed at protecting citizens’ lives from the cholera outbreak in the capital city.

He explained that Government was aware of some political players who wanted to take advantage of the cholera situation and politicize the epidemic for their own personal gain.

And Dr Chilufya said 30 bars and bottle store owners would soon appear in court in Lusaka for their failure to comply with Ministry of Health directives imbedded in the recently invoked Statutory Instrument (SI) 79 after health inspectors advised closure.

The Health Minister said the Lusaka City Council (LCC) working with the joint defence forces has dragged those business houses who have defied orders to close premises due to poor sanitary conditions as they continued to ply their trade.

“From the time the outbreak started, we intensified inspection of public trading places including bars, to determine if sanitary conditions were conducive, and for those areas we found the situation was compromised, we provided counselling and ordered closure as per SI.

“For those who have not complied after being spoken to, I can confirm we are taking 30 such traders to court from various places of Chipata zone for failing to comply with the orders issued by health inspectors to shut their premises because of poor sanitation and inadequate access to clean water,” he said.

He said there were however 12 other places booked for re-inspection as they were complying with the order from the inspectors.

He has since issued a stern warning against law breakers and called for compliance especially in areas of high infection rates like Kanyama, Chipata, Matero and Garden compounds.

He said the Government has engaged a robust response in preventing further spread and reduce escalation of infection with Chipata’s Mazyopa areas currently recording zero new cases following improved safe water supply points and effective burying of all shallow wells in the areas.

He said they were confident that within a few weeks the epidemic would be contained.