Underlying causes of cholera in Zimbabwe remain unattended to

The video footage above shows sewage freely flowing along the perimeter of Lobengula Primary school (Bulawayo) – you can hear children shouting and playing near-by in the background.

It’s cool and dry in Zimbabwe at the moment, but when the rainy season ensues, and the weather turns hot, the threat of a massive cholera epidemic looms large again. This footage, and the images included in this post, clearly show that unhygenic conditions persist.

Rubbish left uncollected alongside a road in Makokoba, a high density residential area

Rubbish left uncollected alongside the road in Makokoba

ZimOnline, in an article titled ‘Zim at risk of more deadly cholera outbreak’, noted that health professionals are still very concerned about the health risk facing Zimbabweans, “chiefly because underlying causes remained unattended to“:

Zimbabwe remains at risk of a fresh and more deadly outbreak of cholera once the next rainy season starts in about five months time, health experts have said, adding that the infectious disease had become endemic in a country where sewer and water facilities broke down years ago.

International relief agencies and local health officials who coordinated efforts to combat a cholera outbreak that began last August and was only brought under control several weeks ago, said the disease could probably not be completely eradicated in the near future chiefly because underlying causes remained unattended to.

“We are afraid that we will have a resurfacing of cholera once the first rains start,” UNICEF communications officer Tsitsi Singizi told ZimOnline in an interview.

“Water supplies are still erratic in areas such as Budiriro and Glen View (Harare suburbs), which were the epicentres of the cholera outbreak. Sewage is still flowing in and the government must repair infrastructure and correct the water supply,” said Singizi.

Backed up sewage system pushes sewer contents to the toilet surface

The still images in this post were taken in Makokoba, one of Bulawayo’s oldest high density areas. Bulawayo was the province least affected by the cholera epidemic, reporting a total of 445 cases to date (Harare reported 19,550 cases and Mashonaland West was the worst affected with 22,753 cases). Nevertheless, conditions in Makokoba are dire.

Overflowing sewer

Children playing near overflowing sewage

Even though Bulawayo was less affected by the epidemic than other regions, the health conditions in Makokoba are horrific. It is a densely populated area with many of blocks of flats built creating the type of environment where disease can rapidly spread.

Makokoba is a densely populated area.

The latest report from the World Health Organisation (7-13 June 2009) on the cholera crisis in Zimbabwe quantifies the crisis since the cholera epidemic started in August 2008:

Since August 2008

• 55 out of the 62 districts (89%) in the country have been affected by the ongoing cholera epidemic

• 98,531 suspected cholera cases and 4,282 deaths have been reported by 13th of June 2009 to the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare’s (MoHCW) surveillance department.

• The crude case fatality since the outbreak started still stands at 4.3% (61.4% of the mortality being community deaths).

This entry was posted by Sokwanele on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 4:05 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.