Lusaka Province Health Director, Simulyamana Choonga, says the cholera vaccination exercise will commence soon and that priority will be given to hotspot areas and health workers exposed to cholera treatment centres.
Dr Choonga notes that the vaccines are expected to be in the country by next week and urged people to continue practicing personal hygiene.
He said the government has continued to put in place interventions that will help fight the epidemic.
The Provincial Health Director, explained that once the cholera vaccines are in the country, the province will begin vaccinating community members in hotspots.
“We will go flat out as a province to support the Ministry of Health to do the vaccination in the hotspots”, Dr Choonga said.
He said the vaccines are effective and called on people to turn up in numbers once the exercise commences.
The Provincial Health Director has also urged members of the public to seek medical services immediately if they notice some Cholera symptoms.
Dr Choonga said Cholera has spread to all the districts of Lusaka Province.
“When you fall sick, rush to the nearest health facility. People are dying in homes and others come already sick. They just stay a few hours in hospital and die”, he said.
He noted that in the past two weeks, the Province had over 300 patients compared to this week where the numbers have risen to over 500.
And a Kanyama resident, Simon Chawala, said some areas have not yet received water tanks.
He appealed to the government to consider installing water tanks in all needy areas.
And Mr. Chawala has called on the government to expedite the vaccination program to ensure the spread of the disease is contained.
Another resident, Sylvia Phiri, said the vaccine will help prevent cholera and reduce the risk of contraction.
Ms Phiri has called on Kanyama residents to turn up in numbers once the vaccination program commences.
You are right LT to say:” to commerce”. Because this is an exercise of a commercial nature to make foreign companies rich while they inject new diseases in Africans. Hh business partners
I understand that people have been sensitized to take this ‘vaccine’ by the overreporting of a single cholera case. And now they are pushing another ‘vaccine’ on everyone. And they’re giving it to a very healthy young woman at child bearing age?
DO NOT TAKE IT. DISCOURAGE ANYONE YOU KNOW FROM TAKING IT.
Are you Watch Tower.? There are so many vaccines you have been given since childhood.
These people! Are they serious? Several days into an outbreak and they haven’t started rolling out the vaccine? The MoH knows that every rainy season, given our poor sanitary habits and systems, cholera is a question of when not if. MoH should keep emergency vaccines BEFORE an outbreak. Vaccines are supposed to start within 24 hrs for close contacts of case 1. Some people need to be shifted or fired for their incompetence and putting citizens at increased risk.