Chitungwiza cholera outbreak ‘under control’

THE Chitungwiza Health Department has assured residents that the cholera outbreak is under control as authorities have been able to detect, investigate and treat cases from the time it was detected midlast month in St Mary’s.

Director of Health and Environmental Services Dr Tonderai Kasu told The Herald that to date, they had recorded 34 cases and have since been able to treat the affected people.

“As Chitungwiza, we now have 34 cases on our line list and of these, 18 are confirmed cases while 16 are suspected cases. Almost all of the cases are coming from the St Mary’s area, although there have been one or two cases from Zengeza and Manyame,” he said.

“The situation is under control in the sense that we have been able to effectively detect, investigate and treat cases.”

Dr Kasu added that they recorded one death and the rest have been treated successfully.

“Throughout the outbreak, Chitungwiza has experienced one death. The person died before they sought treatment. Everyone that has come to us for treatment has been successfully treated and resuscitated and has made full recovery,” he said.

Investigations conducted by the health team showed that two contaminated wells which were subsequently sealed off were the source of the cholera outbreak.

“Our investigations revealed that two shallow wells at adjoining households in St Mary’s where a number of our cases came from where contaminated with vibrio cholerae. We have since sealed off both these wells as a public health measure,” said Dr Kasu.

He also noted that because of the old sewage infrastructure, residents in St Mary’s have been emptying their septic tanks with bare hands and they had proposed to the council to offer free service for the time being.

The council set up a cholera treatment camp in St Mary’s with the assistance of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Meanwhile, the health department is conducting road shows educating residents about cholera and distributing nonfood items such as soap, aqua-tabs, buckets and water containers to affected and identified vulnerable households.