Measles breaks out in Kitwe; 41 cases recorded

Measles has broken out in Kitwe district of Copperbelt province and 41 cases have already been recorded.

Kitwe District Director of Health, Chikafuna Banda confirmed the outbreak of the disease today and named the most affected areas as Mulenga and Malembeka compounds.

Dr. Banda told the district development coordinating committee meeting in Kitwe today that ministry of Health officials were already on the ground immunizing the affected children.

Dr Banda said the disease has broken out in the district because some people shunned the national measles immunization exercise.

He also blamed the outbreak on some church organisations that were discouraging their members from having their children vaccinated against measles because of their religious beliefs.

He expressed great concern at the poor state of the communal toilets in Wusakili township, which he said were posing a health hazard to the residents.

He said the water in the township was highly contaminated because the water pipes were close to the communal toilets.

And Kitwe District Commissioner Macdonald Mtine said the toilets in this township were pathetic and unhygienic.

Mr. Mtine has since urged council and health workers to ensure that the toilets were disinfected through fumigation and chlorination.

Meanwhile, Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Jennifer Musonda has urged District Commissioners in the province to mobilise and encourage people in the communities to take their children to health centres for vaccinations against various diseases.

ZANIS reports that Mrs. Musonda said government had provided immunisation antigens to clinics and hospitals.

She however said the province had failed to reach the 80% coverage target.

Mrs. Musonda said this in a speech read on her behalf by Assistant Secretary, Elli Mulemwa, during the official opening of the Provincial Epidemic Preparedness Meeting at Savoy Hotel yesterday.

“Government has provided all kinds of immunisation antigens to our hospitals and clinics, we have unfortunately failed to reach 80% coverage,” she said.

She explained that the 80% target was meant to fully protect children from childhood diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, malaria, polio, hepatitis B and others.

Mrs. Musonda said it was the duty of leaders in the province to mobilise people in their communities to take their children to health centres for immunisation.

The Permanent Secretary further appealed to district commissioners and Town Clerks to step up sensitisation campaigns on the need for every household in the province to be sprayed against mosquitoes.

Mrs. Musonda, who said that government’s vision was to ensure that malaria was eradicated in the communities, warned that government would not tolerate poor cooperation exhibited by some households who refuse to permit spraying of their houses against mosquitoes.

She stressed that there was need for the sensitisation exercise to start so that people were psychologically prepared for the exercise.