By Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe continues to grapple with a cholera outbreak that began in February 2023, with the number of cases exceeding 20,000, the deputy cholera incident manager Stephen Karim has highlighted.
Speaking during a press conference in Harare Monday, Karim said ideally the outbreak was supposed to have been dealt within two weeks.
“The first case of cholera was on the 12th of February 2023 in Chegutu, so it has taken us a full year, ideally an outbreak should have been controlled within two weeks, so 12 months on we still have cholera.
“Cumulative suspected cholera cases so far are 23 935, we have breached the 20 000 mark in terms of all suspected cases. Of those, 23 147 have recovered and currently patients who have been admitted, we have 233 ” he said.
Karim added that “we had deaths along the way, so far we have had 71 confirmed culture positive deaths as well as 454 suspected cholera deaths.
“On a positive note, our fatality rate has gone down from 2.2% to 1.9% which reflects an improvement in case management ”
The nation is currently rolling out an Oral Cholera Vaccination (OCV) program which is targeting 2.3 million people.
The OVC is not available to the whole population, it is available for the population that is at most risk.
The dosage protects people only for six months however a full dose is supposed to cover up to three years.
“When you get one shot of OVC you are protected for 6 months.In an ideal environment you are supposed to get two shots, 2-6 weeks apart, if you get a full complement of two shots, protection goes up to three years so these gives us space to organise other drivers of cholera.
“In terms of supply of the OVC there is a shortage, it is not a vaccine that is plentiful so there is rationalization happening, you might be aware that most countries in SADC are hit by cholera so demand is high, supply is not matching demand. So we are doing one dose because of inadequate supplies on the global market,” he said.
Meanwhile most affected districts in Zimbabwe include Buhera, Chegutu, Chikomba, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Chitungwiza, Harare, Chiredzi, Mwenezi, Hwedza.
