Monze District Acting Medical Officer Faustina Mulinga has dispelled media reports of cholera outbreak in Monze District following the admission of a named male at Mulumbwa Clinic with diarrhea.
Dr Mulinga said medical results conducted on the patient indicated that the man was suffering from normal diarrhea of a different cause and not cholera as reported in the media.
Yesterday Monze District Commissioner Mr Cyprian Hamanyanga was quoted confirming the outbreak of cholera in the District on Radio Sky Fm and Chikuni Radio stations while results for medical investigations on the patient were not yet out.
Dr Mulinga also said it was unfortunate the confirmation of an outbreak of the disease was reported in the media before official confirmation from the health department.
“I can confirm to you that the results of that patient turned out negative for cholera organisms, I would also like to clear the air that as a District, we have not yet recorded a case of cholera as reported in the media.
The result indicated that the named man was suffering from diarrhea of a different cause and not cholera,” said Dr. Mulinga in an interview with ZANIS yesterday.
She assured Monze residents that the health personnel in the District were on high alert but, added that people should continue to maintain high standards of hygiene such as washing their hands, avoiding large gatherings, keeping their surrounding cleans and boiling drinking water as preventable measures.
“However, in as much as we have not recorded any cholera case, we should not relax in our preventable measures such as boiling water for drinking , keeping our surroundings clean, washing our hands with soap, avoiding large gatherings,” said Dr Mulinga.
Normal diarrhea? Could there be anything normal about diarrhea? Is it that we have now reached a point where our expections for good health have been so lowered that diarrhea has become the new normal? Beware the slippery slope!
Cholera, whatever.