- Zambia reels from cholera outbreak with more than 400 dead
Zambia has ordered schools to stay closed after the holidays due to a cholera outbreak that has killed over 400 people and sickened over 10,000.
A huge capital city football stadium is now a therapeutic facility.
The Zambian government is mass-vaccinating and supplying 2.4 million litres of clean water a day to impacted areas.
National disaster management agency mobilised.
A microorganism causes cholera, an acute diarrhoea infection spread by contaminated food or water. Poverty and poor water access are associated to the disease.
On Wednesday, the Zambia Public Health Institute, the government agency that handles health crises, reported 412 deaths and 10,413 cases from the October outbreak.
The Health Ministry reports more than 400 cholera cases a day in the 20-million-person nation.
“This outbreak continues to pose a threat to the health security of the nation,” Health Minister Sylvia Masebo stated.
UNICEF dubbed the three-month outbreak’s 4% fatality rate “a devastatingly high number.” With treatment, cholera kills less than 1%.
Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe have had cholera epidemics. Since 2023, UNICEF has reported over 200,000 cases and 3,000 deaths in southern Africa.
Malawi had its biggest cholera outbreak in decades in 2023. The WHO said this year that 30 countries, including Nigeria and Uganda in Africa, had significant outbreaks in recent years.
Cholera rarely affects affluent nations and is easily treatable but devastating if untreated.
The public health institute said that 229 Zambian epidemic victims died before being hospitalised.
Dr. Mazyanga Mazaba, the public health institute’s director of public health strategy and communication, says this cholera outbreak is the worst in 20 years. Zambia has had numerous large outbreaks since the 1970s.
Cholera bacteria can survive longer in warmer conditions, and experts suggest exceptionally heavy rains and storms in southern Africa have contributed to recent outbreaks.
Last year, WHO reported that while poverty and conflict are the main causes of cholera, climate change has made storms wetter and more frequent since 2021, contributing to the disease’s global spread. Last year, a cyclone in Mozambique spread cholera.
Zambian communities have been flooded by heavy rains and flash flooding.
In early January, the Zambian government announced that schools would open on January 29 instead of January 8. Parents and children were advised to employ public TV and radio education programmes, reminiscent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The education minister ordered school cleaning and inspection.
Zambia’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit delivered large water tanks and clean water to some areas everyday. Granulated chlorine for water treatment was also given.
The health minister claimed a 60,000-seat national football stadium in Lusaka is treating 500 patients at a time, as most cases are in the capital.
She said Zambia had received 1.4 million WHO oral cholera vaccine doses and expected more than 200,000 more soon. Masebo and other Zambian authorities openly took a vaccine to encourage others.
Health experts have cautioned that the global cholera outbreaks have strained vaccine supplies, which are largely supplied to poor nations by the UN and partners. According to Gavi, the vaccination scarcity could extend until 2025.
