Friday, March 29, 2024

Government invokes SI to combat cholera

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Some various parts of Lusaka being cleaned.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya has invoked provisions of the Public Health Act and have since issued a Statutory Instrument 79 Public Health Act on cholera affected areas.

Dr. Chilufya stated that the move has enhanced powers for the Ministry to carry out public health interventions to stop the spread of cholera by addressing the determinants of the epidemic from Soweto market and other markets including contaminated foods consumed from the streets.

He said from 6th October, 2017 when cholera was declared an outbreak, 1,901 cases have been recorded and 49 people have so far died.

The Minister added that the disease has mainly been in Lusaka with a few sporadic cases outside, most of which if not all of them have been linked to Lusaka.

Dr. Chilufya added that currently, Chelstone, Barastone, Rhodespark and Ibex Hill have also recorded cholera cases.

Speaking at the National Epidemic Preparedness Prevention Control and Management Committee Meeting in Lusaka yesterday, Dr. Chilufya stated that the main drivers of cholera include consumption of contaminated water from shallow wells, consumption of contaminated foods that is sold from Soweto market and other markets as well as from the streets.

He further explained that his Ministry has investigated the cases picked from various places and it has been found that all cholera cases in Lusaka have a common point of distribution which is either a visit to a particular market or procurement of foods from certain streets.

Dr. Chilufya indicated that the fresh foods that is sold from the streets and markets including mushrooms, beef and chickens and also the food from restaurants with poor sanitary facilities have picked up vibrio cholera or other fecal particles.

The Minister added that toilets in markets that have been checked so far also have evidence of vibrio cholera.

Meanwhile, Minister of Local Government and Housing Vincent Mwale noted that there was need to upgrade the slums.

Mr. Mwale noted that about 70 percent of the people stay in slums without good water reticulation or water points and with poor sanitary conditions.

He added that resources for the project to upgrade slums will be mobilised through issuance of bonds.

And Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice President Sylvia Chalikosa said communities need to be sensitized against the use of contaminated water for washing because they may end up consuming it.

Ms. Chalikosa said the people, who are affected, should be made to understand that if there are no concerted efforts in curbing the spread of the disease, everybody is at risk of being affected in one way or the other.

10 COMMENTS

  1. “Dr. Chilufya indicated that the fresh foods that is sold from the streets and markets including mushrooms, beef and chickens and also the food from restaurants with poor sanitary facilities have picked up vibrio cholera or other fecal particles.”
    So are you telling me that the sick have eaten human faeces /sh!t. Awe kwena ifiko muzambia, balunshi, poor sewage system, ukufwasa ama sewer pipes. No efforts made to address the problem. Awe kwena we should change bane. Twachilamo ukuichushia.

    • Yes boss, people catch cholera after having eaten human waste. Shallow wells that are near pit latrines, food that is contaminated with the same from nearby human Chitechi by flies and so on and so forth.

  2. Mr. President, job well done. Let Lusaka be habitable once again.
    Those cadre thugs in a make shift restaurant who grabbed mast news paper from me, feel it.

  3. Flashback to August 2015 … “THE Lusaka water supply, sanitation and drainage project under the Millennium Challenge Corporation will commence this year at a cost of US$355 million”

    Any evidence that this project has been going on? Loans, grants, aid, e.t.c have been obtained over the years to ‘sort out’ Lusaka’s water and sewerage systems. Check the history. Wondering where and how exactly all this has been spent – in view of our perennial water and sanitation issues.

  4. Bwana Minister and your bunch of public Health specialists did you have to wait for 3 months to invoke provisions of the Public Health Act and to issue a Statutory Instrument 79 Public Health Act on cholera-affected areas.
    The moment a single case of Cholera was detected the surveillance team should have been dispatched and measures to curb it’s spreading should have benn instituted.Tamwa kwata imitima!
    By the way, where is the V/President and her unit .the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU)?

  5. We see so many sentences to many years with hard labour. Had prisoners been used to address blocked drains and for the collection of excess waste and garbage we probably be facing such. Bring proper community service by prisoners as we can not rely on the stretched councils.

  6. NO MORE street vending in Lusaka OR Let everyone obtain a vendors License from the council, or else the cholera is here to stay.

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