By Conrad Mwanawashe
HARARE has recorded the majority of cholera cases contributing 8,043 cases in terms of geographical disease burden distribution so far and is also lagging behind in Oral Cholera Vaccine (OCV) coverage currently at 60%.
“I’m glad to report that in some provinces, coverage that is the targeted population and what they’ve actually received has been above 100%. But we still have some challenges in Harare. We expect it to continue peaking,” said Dr Stephen Karimu, Deputy Cholera Incident Manager in the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC).
“We still have some challenges in Manicaland where coverage is around 70 to 80% OCV coverage. But the challenges are surmountable,” he added.
The OCV campaign was launched on January 29 in Kuwadzana, one of the cholera hotspots districts.
One of the reasons for the low uptake of the OCV is disinformation particularly on social media.
“There’s also some vaccine hesitancy mainly driven by disinformation and misinformation particularly on social media and other unofficial sources of information. But we continue to encourage our population to access the vaccine which is lifesaving,” Dr Karimu said.
Since the outbreak was reported on February 12 last year in Chegutu, Zimbabwe has recorded 23,905 suspected cholera cases, 2,511 confirmed cases. Of those suspected cases, 23 147 have recovered. The country has also recorded 71 confirmed deaths and 454 suspected deaths with a Case Fatality Rate of 1.9%.
“On a positive note, our case fatality rate (those who die out of those who have cholera) has gone down from 2,2% to 1,9% which reflects an improvement in case management. That is not the ideal environment, we want the case fatality rate to be below 1%. So out of 100 people we have cholera, our expectation is that less than 1% die,” said Dr Karimu.
Dr Karimu said Oral Cholera Vaccination was however not “a magic bullet”, therefore, people must continue observing good hygiene practices, regular hand washing under running safe water, drinking treated or boiled water, safe disposal of solid, liquid, and human waste, and observing food hygiene standards.
“It gives us breathing space. When you get one shot of OCV, you are protected for six months. In an ideal environment, you are supposed to get two shots, protection goes up to three years. So this gives us a great space to organize other drivers of cholera,” said Dr Karimu.
Manicaland and Masvingo are the second most hit provinces with Manicaland recording 5,981 and Masvingo 2,665 suspected cholera cases. Bulawayo has recorded the list number of cumulative cases at 29 suspected cases.
Dr Karimu said Zimbabwe has about 17 cholera hotspot districts, but they have started to see cases in Mbare and in Mashonaland Central particularly in Centinary, Bindura and Shamva.
The cholera vaccination campaign in Zimbabwe is targeting 2.3 million people, aged one year old and above, living in 160 wards within 26 high risk districts in 7 provinces: Harare, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands. These districts are considered the main drivers for the outbreak.
The main operational strategy used in this campaign is house-to-house to minimize gatherings and further spread of the disease. This is complemented by fixed vaccination points in all health facilities within the catchment area. Each vaccination team is composed of three people, expected to vaccinate an average of 150 persons per day.
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