Friday, March 29, 2024

UNZA students riot after one dies of suspected typhoid

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University of Zambia (UNZA) students this afternoon staged a protest after word went round that one of the students had died of typhoid fever and not diarrhea as diagnosed by the university clinic.

A Check by a Qfm news crew at the Great East road campus found students gathered chanting funeral songs and demanding to be addressed by the university management.

And acting Vice Chancellor Enala Mwase has given the students two days to mourn their colleague, but has appealed to them to mourn their colleague in a peaceful manner.

The body of the student who died in the early hours of today is lying in the University Teaching Hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem to establish the actual cause of death.

And UNZA public relations officer Stanslous Chewe has told Qfm that the student was on Wednesday taken to the clinic and upon conducting emergency tests, there were little indications of typhoid to a level where a person could die.

29 COMMENTS

  1. It is time UNZA grew up. While we are sorry and sympathise with the loss, UNZA students must act like learned students. It is time they transformed their street mentality to people worth their education they have.

    • A major cause of typhoid is public sanitation conditions. In my understanding, they are staging protest because sanitation conditions that could have been taken care of. Some deaths are avoidable and I think the government and everyone should be commited to better sanitation. I am not a UNZA students. So, please understand and stop calling names.

    • PF is to blame for the incidence of typhoid at UNZA. PF is not releasing enough funds for UNZA to deal with the water problem in time.
      Typhoid is a water born disease. So if the toilet facilities do not have enough water to flush and clean the facilities then typhoid gems breed uncontrollably and infect the users.
      During my days at UNZA water shortages were unheard of. All other places in the city had water problems but not UNZA.
      Its a shame that PF is spending money building new institutions while failing to maintain the existing ones. If PF can not maintain the existing small number of Universities ,how on earth will they manage to maintain an increased number.
      These problems are unfolding because PF does not have an economic plan. They are just kicking the can down the road.

    • Even Mulungushi university has also been closed indefinitely due to water shortages.

      What I don’t understand is why is there is a critical water shortage problem in Zambia when the country has a huge body of water which just flows into the Indian Ocean?

      PF should not only concentrate in building roads but also do some thing to improve the supply of water in the country.

    • @ Nubian Princess
      You are in fact the dumbest person ever lived here on earth. Do you really know the causes of typhoid? Don’t just prostitute yourself to death there, come back and see by yourself and maybe you would understand.

    • Water reticulation in the whole country is major surce of concern. Kabwe is one town where I conducted a study on problems affecting water reticulation, and one major factor was lack of proper maintenance of resources and political interferance. This has led to a point where Bwacha township among others have gone for more than five years without water. It just leaves you to imagine the kind of preventable diseases that prevail in that community.

  2. A higher Institution of learning which is very filthy! What a shame! Instead of building a University in Muchinga, money should have been used to renovate UNZA and build more hostels.

    • Decongest UNZA by building universities elsewhere.Further expansion will even complicate matters more for an unsophisticated administration.
      A student dies of unsanitary conditions after commemorating World Toilets Day.How ironic

  3. why protest and demand attention from management? is it management who put typhoid in a bag and spread it around, grow up guys. lyonse its excuses of trying not to go to class, thats why we are always behind.

    • iye kabiye uko, don’t you know that typhoid is a water borne disease, unsanitary conditions breed such. IT is the duty of management to ensure students live in healthy diseased free conditions

    • Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. It is the responsibility of the students to keep the environment clean, typhoid is cause by dirty which could be from water, plates and food.

    • pio thank you. its the duty of the students to ensure a clean environment, i have seen those rooms at unza, same place where they dry their clothes is the same place where they are doing their cooking. they need to be responsible

  4. It is not fair to blame the students for the filth and poor sanitation at that neglected institution. Typhoid is caused by among other things unhygienic conditions, water getting contaminated by feces.
    From what we hear that university is not suitable for human habitation, and who is to blame, the students or the politicians? Isn’t it ironic that yesterday they were celebrating ‘world toilet day’ whatever that means.

    • the london eye. i know what you mean but at the same time i know we zambians,. dont you remember those programs we would see on health matters where a lady is standing near her home and appealing for government to come and pick up the trash can? comeon, if the damn thing is causing diseases, group up as a community and get the damn things off your location. in chinese zambians are what we called ‘beidong’–simply means passive.

  5. Is this confirmed Typhoid or suspected Typhoid?
    It is almost end of year and so students are under pressure and will find any excuse and will pray hard that their exams postponed or cancelled somehow.
    It has never been management’s duty to ensure your hostels are clean!
    If so called intellectuals can’t maintain cleanliness, how will they apply common sense?
    Be factual!
    What do you expect with all the boreholes and soakaways all over Lusaka?

    • If you are not knowledgeable about something don’t comment otherwise you will expose your ignorance. Those students have endured living in campus without water and now there is typhoid outbreak you still blame them. You want them to smile and go on with their normals business when they are risk of getting the disease themselves. unless they damaged someone’s property but if the demo is peaceful they deserve public support. How can u have the biggest institution without water and expected to roduce quality graduates. we need to change our thinking.

    • @Dim Wit, If you know less or have no knowledge about certain things or institutions, then better to have a moderate comment on this topic than to be too critical on things you know not about.
      I know that you have never being at UNZA (as a student) because of your comment, and most probally not even any lower institution of learning. But its not too late you can work your way there, if this cannot happen, your brother or sister or any other relative can go there to appreciate what students go through there sometimes.
      Don’t just comment carelessly.

    • Actually there are no exams at unza now or soon (like in December). Unza is now using a term system and exams will be in July 2014 to mark the end of 2013 academic year for your own information. No students are avoiding exams now because there are no exams to be avoided.

  6. The people to blame are the journalists. They are reporting a riot but the story has no riot in it. Just a gathering of students who are either mourning or appealing to authority for sanitation I believe

  7. i know those who couldnt make it to unza cant understand jst rewrite some subjects and apply then u will understand y students protest.

  8. Stop blaming the govt anyhow, public universities are quasi-government.The institution has to play a big role as well.You cant tell the govt to clean ABs for Instance..There is also no need to protest up to the great East road..But management should be blames becoz thy do not release full information in most cases.Its unfortunate that a future leader dead maybe becoz of poor sanitation.MHSRIP

  9. this finger pointing at the government needs to stop at some point, why should the government be doing every thing , we need to learn to be responsible, stop throwing trash any how, sell in markets instead of streets, pick up your trash and the like..

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