Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Cholera death toll rises to 66 as CDF diverted to Cholera fight

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President Edgar Edgar Chagwa Lungu (second from right) accompanied by Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale visits the Cholera Centre at Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Tuesday,January 9,2018. PICTURE BY SALIM HENRY/STATE HOUSE
President Edgar Edgar Chagwa Lungu (second from right) accompanied by Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale visits the Cholera Centre at Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Tuesday,January 9,2018. PICTURE BY SALIM HENRY/STATE HOUSE

Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya has revealed that 114 new cholera cases have been recorded in Lusaka today with the cumulative death toll standing at 66.

And Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale has revealed that part of the Constituency Development Fund for 2017 have been diverted to the fight against Cholera.

Addressing a news briefing in Lusaka this morning, Dr Chilufya said the country has now recorded a cumulative total of 2,802 cases with 218 under treatment countrywide.

Dr. Chilufya also disclosed that the administering of the cholera vaccine in the affected areas will commence tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale says Government will not be able to release the Constituency Development Funds for 2017 because the funds have been diverted to the fight against Cholera.

Mr Mwale said in 2017, only about 70 percent of the budgeted funds were released adding that some funds meant for constituency development were diverted to Cholera fight around October.

And President Edgar Lungu this morning toured the National Heroes Stadium which has been turned into a National Cholera Treatment Centre.

In a related development,UK High Commissioner to Zambia Fergus Cochrane-Dyet said he is saddened by the increase in Cholera cases.

“I am saddened by the increase in cholera cases and wish to express sympathy to those who have been ill or lost loved ones over the festive season. Britain, as Zambia’s oldest friend, is working through UKAid in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Zambia and other development actors to tackle the outbreak of cholera and prevent its spread,” he said.

Mr Cochrane-Dyet, said the U.K. is working actively with the Zambian government and co-operating partners to tackle the current outbreak of cholera.

“We encourage the Government, working with the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to establish clear and effective coordination mechanisms to provide a rapid and effective response to the crisis”

“The UK Government through its Department for International Development (DFID) is working in partnership with the Government of Zambia (GRZ) and other development actors to help tackle the outbreak of cholera and prevent its spread. The UK is providing expertise and financial support to improve outbreak preparedness and response,” he said.

He stated that the UK Government is providing a total of £3.7million (K51,430,000.00 equivalent) over four years (2016-2020) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to support the Government of Zambia to prepare and respond to health emergencies, including the current cholera outbreak.

“The UK has assisted the Ministry of Health to train 128 health workers in Lusaka districts in integrated disease surveillance and response, provided vehicles, cholera treatment and prevention kits, supplies for diagnosis and information/communication materials.”

55 COMMENTS

    • Criminal cadres are the disaster ,,,Kaiser Zulu and his group caused this, sleeping mayor, and the mobile president didn’t help either,,,,,

    • Mamamamama, PF POMPWEs will LOOT those CDF funds. Mark my words, it’ll be next week’s headlines.

      PF is the type of man that shamelessly steals money for a coffin donated for his own child’s burial.

      How can a minister boast ati “PF Govt is the MOST LUCRATIVE GOVT we’ve ever had”

    • MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

      1. So, since the disease broke out the administering of the cholera Vaccine will only start TOMORROW?
      2. Why should CDF be used to fight cholera, are national disasters not budgeted for under the VP’s office?
      3. Doesn’t MOH have a contingency or miscellaneous budgetary allocation?
      4. Now you’re taking CDF, which in some instances was meant to develop sanitation infrastructure to help prevent this same cholera. And when the disease breaks out again in those areas, you’ll be running around like its an earthquake – POOR PLANNING!!!

    • Clear lack of planning by these reckless dumb bells already they have dipped into the toll gate road fund and now CDF…they have eaten everything.

    • This is what docile Zambians get when they allow a visionless convicted thief like Edgar Cholera Lungu to corrupt Judges and rig and steal elections.
      After BORROWING TWENTY BILLION US DOLLARS there is now no money to cope with an epidemic. The money has been wasted by the PF THIEVES going on shopping trips to New York in chartered planes, to fellow Dictators inaugurations, to looking at naked young girls in Swaziland and fattening their own bank accounts. No wonder Kalaba resigned due to corruption!

      Zambia needs to clean its house of these thieves like Jesus cleared the moneychangers out of the Temple!

    • According to the butterfly effect one person with cholera can cripple an economic system. What we dont realize is that small actions coupled with feedback loops can result in amplified effects.

      The one person who provided the initial conditions of the epidermic has caused huge economic losses both in terms of lost business and increases in expenditure employed in fighting the epidermic. With the diversion of the funds from CDC, some community will not have a proper borehole sunk further aggravating the situation in future and creating a further initial condition with wider effects.

      The one person defecating near a water system is not the only problem. There are countless numbers of this initial conditions just to name a few, lack of proper sewer systems in affected areas, lack of…

    • …. lack of clean water, overcrowding, lack of inadequate hygiene knowledge, inaction on the part of authorities. This goes on and on…

    • Lungu must immediately fire Vincent Mwale as he is a pathetic failure. Local government is responsible for cleaning up public areas but this chap failed. Fire that failure and bring back Lucky Mulusa

    • This is what happens when you elect loafers and kaponyas in govt…they live hand to mouth…chew everything; when you talk reserves or savings they think you are sick!!

  1. Filthy nation with filthy leadership failing to manage dirt in a nation. Zambia is a cholera nation year after year. Visitors, foreigners and business people as well as investors develop aversion to come to Zambia.

  2. @ Anyoko what pride is that “small number of only 66 death from cholera”. what a shame to cheapen Zambian life that way.

  3. Hopefully the figures being released are not conservative.

    There is usually a tendency by authorities to under report the situation in the mythical belief that full disclosure will either attract negative comments or cause panic, yet if the situation is not fully appreciated by those exposed, they may ignore precautions thinking they are not at risk.

  4. @ndobo
    Ba Ndobo, I agree. This re-allocation of funds is worrying. There is no budgetary structure for cholera, spending will be according to cholera outbreaks. It’s money unaccounted for, they will steal big time.
    I hope the UK can supervise their donations. You are dealing with people who are lazy and corrupt to the core, they can even exaggerate cholera so that they can reallocate or have more funds donated.

  5. Zambia is like a man putting on 1 million dollar wheelbarrow suit with an office built on a rubbish dump, all this infrastructure and construction been preached is nothing but utopia, the country is still a dumpsite.

    • When we told them buying Fire trucks for $1million is hideously expensive and daylight robbery they thought we were jokes now the do not have emergency funds.

  6. Seriously there is no money to treat this pandemic whilst ministers have been encouraged by the president not to pay back the money they unlawfully received when they were retained in government after the dissolution of parliament?Meanwhile CBU students were brutalised for merely demanding meal allowances?

    • Ah! so cholera is kept at Mukobeko by PF and Edgar C.Lungu and laced to Zambians drinking water. Unfortunately God has not ordained HH to die through cholera kept at Mukobeko but innocent Zambians are dying because of PF government and Edgar Lungu’s greed. God reigns.

  7. Ba LT why are you changing pictures in the same article. earlier it was dR chilufya the failure, now President Lungu/ka vincent. The more you show Lungu to us the angrier we become.

  8. Now they are diverting money allocated to other critical areas. Just another evidence how much stealing they have done. Are they telling me there was no money allocated to emergencies and man made national disasters like this? And just how are they using this money anyway… buying a few white partitioning materials; chlorine; and some drugs? There would be money donated by well-wishers like the UK govt.

    All that stealing gone and diverted through those wheelbarrows, overpriced road and other dubious way that we have never heard of.

    Still no one resigns for causing this shame; no one is fired and yet despite the irrational measures like beating of worshipers, the death toll is increasing… definitely the their measures are not working. And knowing these crooks, the death toll is…

  9. For once lets be serious on what we post on this fora!! There is a problem that needs everyone’s efforts but you are busy posting stup1dy comments. What type of people are kanshi? If you do not have anything to write about better you go and play chidunu for kids. This is not a play ground you foo1s.

    • Mate you need to be furious with your so called leaders for poor leadership that allowed or caused this man made outbreak to happen. Stop venting your spleen on the wrong people. Your corrupt, thieving so called political leaders that you worship like demi-gods have created the environment that enable this to happen.

      Cholera is a shameful man-made disaster… the blood of those who are dying is on the hands of these thieving monkeys who couldn’t see this coming because they were busy stealing and enriching themselves. You need to blame them, not us.

  10. continued…
    And knowing these crooks, the death toll is probably even higher. Still this president can’t even address the nation.

    What a failed state! To those who keep arguing with this definition, these are exactly signs of a failed state. out friends eradicated poverty in the 18th Century, and here we are in the 21st Century in the capital city.

    After this calamity is contained (if it will ever be), please come up with long term strategies to de-congest that slam called Lusaka… start developing other areas so people could relocate to those areas from Lusaka.

  11. Prevention is better than cure!! The buck stops at the door of the government. Years of neglect of sanitary infrastructure, breakdown in enforcement of the Health Act, building by – laws and bed policies (permitting vendors to invade the streets without providing related facilities for health conduct of business) installations, promotion of hygienic living condition and controls to govern establishment of human settlements that has resulted in this cholera epidemic. It is now time for government to come up with sound policies and strategies to correct the laxity and mistakes of the past. Band aid solutions will only postpone the problem to another time. One life lost to cholera is a life too many!!

  12. People like Anyoko should catch the disease someone very close that’s when they will learn that one is too much. Pathetic Thinking!

  13. Are you saying that you have exhausted the toll gate mulla, now you have turned to CDF? This government has been a disaster in waiting and now we are feeling the pinch of voting for clueless cannons without direction. With all the interventions so far, how come the numbers keep rising everyday, or is it a ploy to hoodwink the masses whilst looting the national treasury. These morons are having a field day announcing figures with these press conferences and earning a lot of money. In short we are saying that even the reserves have dried up? Let us open our eyes before we all go to our early graves with these minions at the helm of leadership.

  14. Without the millions of eurobonds PF and lungu are like a fish out of water…..they are hapless…..when PF were busy spending and looting the eurobonds they forgot to wipe their backsides…..this is how you get cholera…….

    • We need to send Chikwanda to wipe Edgar Cholera Lungus backside before he spreads his Cholera Corruption country wide!

  15. Zambia has been with Cholera for a longtime and we have seen worse breakouts like the 1991 one where more than 500 died in Kitwe. But, I find the thinking that only government can stop the spread very disturbing. The government is supposed to do its part but the community also has a role to play. Proper hygiene is every person’s responsibility and you shun places where there is poor sanitation, be it bars, churches, markets, restaurants etc. Also educate your kids to stop playing in drains. Let us take up responsility for a change.

    • Ati cholera has been with us , you must be ashemed of your self for treating cholera like an annual event……

      And in 1991 GRZ had not just spent $17 billion on so called infrastructure ….

  16. Cholera is a shameful disease of filth and unhygienic conditions. And this country has gone to make international news for disgraceful reasons. The world now knows how dirty Zambia is. Surely the leadership of this country ought to hang their heads in shame for failing to provide safe living environment for its people. The disease striking at this magnitude speaks to the quality and calibre of leadership which through its institutions has allowed breakdown in those measures (preventive, sustainable and corrective) make for healthy conditions.

  17. What is the point when you are cleaning the town and kamwala area and then you leave the street kids in numbers opposite seven day church they come everyday sleep there and urinate openly and even sit in the drainage who are we cheating by saying we are fighting cholera when we can’t do anything to this kids who are allowed to do anything what is the council doing it is surprising that the civic centre which is only 500 meters away and the town clerk and the governor who sit there are quite

    • You are right. The cholera crisis is being dealt with using cosmetic solutions instead of putting in place structural long-term changes. Clean water and proper sanitation must be put in place in high-density residential areas. This is of the highest priority because these are dwelling places where people will spend the most time, especially now since there time at churches, bars and markets in now restricted. So even if you clean the town centre, city markets etc but do not put in place solutions for where the masses dwell, we are not creating a lasting solution. It is well and good to announce statistics about the number of eateries that have been closed down at Levy, Woodlands malls etc…but truth be told, these are not the sources of cholera but are just also victims of the spread of…

  18. Part of the long term merchanisims GRZ can put in place is start teaching primary school children about correct rubbish disposal and of contaminating water sources……as of now they are only taught to wash hands after toilet then go outside and throw litter anyhow……the ministry of education must introduce environmental awareness to our primary school children…

    • Cleanliness and environmental protection education should start at primary school…this must be a cultural shift in Zambia ….you can not hope to teach adults to be environmentally aware when through their child years they are not taught….

    • Yap….catch them when they are still young. Same goes for other social issues such as safe sex, savings (as opposed to irresponsible credit), health and wellness etc.

  19. Can anyone confirm the statistics we are being iven please. Moreover, can we be told where those that have died were coming from, is it mayadi or is it kumakomboni? We need to know all this information. Chalala, Ibex etc where all the people have boreholes in each of their yards next to each others soakaway…

  20. CDF really? Does it mean there are no contingency funds for Disaster management under the VP’s office? Does this mean as a country we live with absolutely no contingency funds for emergencies/disasters? This is a very dangerous way to run a country! Especially that we just had a break out of arm worms that required emergency resources, one would expect that the government will be equipped at least monetary wise to handle emergencies like this. We have a serious leadership problem in our country. The people we have employed to think and serve us are just not there to do the job, all of them wait for a situation to happen then scramble for solutions in the process messing up before finding the solution.

    • Yet the President has a slush fund called Presidential Initiative Fund to pay Mosad’s doctors and also order pointless 200 solar hammers from the Chines.

  21. News from 10th January, 2017;

    “Zambia gets $286 million loan from India for infrastructure development to de-congest Lusaka City”

    Anyone have an idea how this money is currently being spent or has been spent? Some people may think it’s not relevant to ask this now, but this is crucial. We need to know where we are coming from, what has happened and why we are where we are. Especially that, shockingly, we are now having to use ‘Toll gate’ revenue and CDF for this situation.

  22. Zambians have become so filthy with the I don’t care attitude; i have warned you for years about street vending; but my warnings have fallen on deaf ears; now people are dying more; now that Lungu is blaming contaminated water and unhygienic environment; they will back street vendors with the hope of cleaning once a month; i thought they mentioned cleaning once a month; what happened? For as long as street vending continues, cholera is here to stay;

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