Cholera outbreak strikes Malawi

waltky · Mar 14, 2018

Cholera outbreak strikes Malawi...

Cholera Outbreak Sparks Blame Game in Malawi
March 13, 2018 — Malawi continues to register new cases of cholera in an outbreak that has now reached half of the country’s 28 districts. However, the government and communities trade blame over containment efforts.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health 23 people have died from cholera since the first case was recorded in November. The number of infected people has now ballooned to 739 from 157 in January. Ministry spokesperson Joshua Malango told VOA that a major cause of the rising number of cases is because of people’s beliefs in superstitions. “Some [people] are still believing that having cholera is not to do with hygiene, it’s to do with witchcraft or some traditional beliefs," he said. " So, instead of rushing to the hospital, they rush to seek traditional medicine which cannot help.” Malango says, for example, one patient died last Thursday in the capital, Lilongwe, because he refused to go to the hospital for medical help. Malango also says churches that prohibit their sick members from getting medical help have contributed to the death toll.

A woman draws water from an unprotected well in Chigwirizano, a peri-urban area hit by a Cholera outbreak in Malawi.

He says authorities recently rescued and took to the hospital some cholera patients who were being prayed for at a church in Salima district, central Malawi. “They are members of Zion Church who resorted to go to churches for prayers and the like. So, three of them died and using police force we managed to rescue seven [cholera patients] who were at the church," he said. Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if not treated. It spreads via contaminated food and water. Levi Zacheyu Mwazalunga is head of the Zion Church in Blantyre, which does not allow its members to get medical help when sick. He told VOA it is wrong to say that his church members died of cholera because they did not go to the hospital. He says we believe that whether one goes to the hospital or not, they will die. It is what God told Adam when He created the earth that everyone will die regardless of age or circumstances.

Communities try to identify cholera hot spots from images taken by a drone during a mapping exercise which UNICEF conducted in peri-urban areas of Lilongwe in February this year.

He read out several verses in the Bible where sick people were healed because of prayers. But health rights campaigners have a different view. Maziko Matemba is the Executive Director for Health and Rights Education Program. He says the rising cholera cases confirm the government's failure to sensitize communities on measures to prevent and contain the disease. “The issue is how far has the ministry of health identified the gap which is there right now," Matemba said. " Because if the condition is still coming out, this means that there is somewhere which the government could have done [ better] in terms of sending messages to do with hygiene.”

A UNICEF-funded cholera treatment camp in Bwaila Hospital, Lilongwe, Malawi.

Joshua Malango defends the government's efforts to contain the cholera outbreak. “If you look at the figures which we are getting on a daily basis comparing with previous months or weeks, it looks like we are making some slides because as of yesterday we had only one new cholera case in Salima. Lilongwe has no new cholera cases," he said. He also says the government has just immunized about 100, 000 people during the first round of cholera vaccinations that took place in the northern districts of Karonga and Rumphi.

https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-cholera/4296285.html
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waltky · Jul 21, 2018

Cholera shows up in Cameroon...

Cholera Threatens Cameroon
July 21, 2018 — A cholera outbreak in Cameroon has claimed at least a dozen lives. Hundreds of people have been rushed to several hospitals in the central African state. It is feared some of the cases were imported from Nigeria and may contaminate refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency.

Arabo Saidou, the highest government official in charge of health in Cameroon's north region says the first cases of cholera were reported along Cameroon's border with Nigeria two months ago. He says the disease has continued to spread since four cases of cholera were recorded in the northern Cameroon town of Mayo Oulo that borders Nigeria on May 18. He says many people, especially children, have been dying both in and out of hospital.

Cholera in Cameroon

In May, the Word Health Organization reported that Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states had been experiencing recurrent cholera outbreaks since February, with a total of 1,664 suspected cases and 31 deaths. Many people from the three Nigerian states travel to Cameroon for business. At least a hundred thousand are in Cameroon as refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency, with over 90,000 at the Minawao refugee camp.

A Cameroonian police officer stands next to people waiting for water at the Minawao refugee camp for Nigerians who fled Boko Haram attacks in Minawao, Cameroon, March 15, 2016.

Issac Bayoro, a Cameroonian epidemiologist working in the Mokolo administrative area where the Minawao refugee camp is located says they are educating refugees to respect hygiene norms and are also screening Nigerians coming to the camp in a bid to protect not only the refugees but their host communities. He says many people continue to defecate in the open air or in streams and river beds where both humans and animals go to find water to drink thereby facilitating the spread of cholera. He says hygiene is not respected as many people do not wash their hands with soap as advised. He says people should stop trusting the belief that an African is naturally vaccinated and can not die of dirt.

Cameroon's ministry of health indicated that the disease quickly spread to Yaounde and Douala, major cities in the central African state. The case reported in Yaounde was of a teenager who travelled to Yaounde from northern Cameroon with his mother. He latter died in a hospital according to the government. Thomas Tawe, a university student and resident of Yaounde says he fears cholera may spread rapidly in the city because just 30 percent of the population has access to good drinking water. "In the city of Yaounde only those who can pay can have water. When you go into the quarters (neighbourhoods) you see that people are carrying water from inhygienic sources," said Tawe. "If the water is contaminated, automatically we will be contaminated."

https://www.voanews.com/a/cholera-threatens-cameroon/4492366.html
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waltky · Sep 9, 2018

Zimbabwe's Capital on Alert Over Cholera Outbreak...

Zimbabwe's Capital on Alert Over Cholera Outbreak
September 07, 2018 — Lizzy Maupa uses a bucket to transfer water she used to bathe from her tub to her toilet.

She has a four-week-old baby and a three-year-old child, but the city water supply has not been working for a month, says Maupa. So she collects water from a nearby river, which she boils to drink. Maupa is being extra careful after Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health on Thursday announced an outbreak of cholera in their part of the city. "I have heard about it. I heard on the news last night," she says. "So I am trying to be hygienic so that I can take care of the little ones. It has been difficult. I have too many water demands."

Cholera patients lie in beds in Budiriro clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe.
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Zimbabwe's outgoing Health Minister David Parirenyatwa told reporters late Thursday approximately 40 people were being treated for cholera and five had already died from diarrhea and vomiting, typical symptoms of the water-borne disease. During a visit to a temporary cholera treatment camp in Harare, he warned people to wash their hands and drink only clean water. "It is usually a problem of contaminated water. These people were drinking water from, we suspect from one or two boreholes that our team has gone to take samples from," he explained. "If they are contaminated, they will be decommissioned for now. Those that we have here are getting much, much better. As usual prevention, prevention, prevention is key otherwise we will have an outbreak throughout the country." A 2008 cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe lasted over a year and killed about 5,000 people.

Some Harare citizens walk by a heap of waste which has not been collected for days. Experts say that is a breeding zone for cholera.

It was stopped only after international groups like USAID donated drugs and water treatment chemicals. The head of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights Calvin Fambirai warns the country must improve basic sanitation to prevent further outbreaks. "The conditions that necessitate the spread of cholera and typhoid in Zimbabwe haven't changed," he warned. "They are becoming worse by the day. The first problem we face is authorities haven't been giving resources necessary for the improvement of service delivery in the country to make sure that these archaic diseases do not continue to break out."

Poor hygiene, water quality and waste disposal in densely populated areas remain unsolved, notes Fambirai. Residents often go for weeks without running water or waste collection. Health Minister Parirenyatwa said the sanitation situation would improve a promise that many have heard before.

https://www.voanews.com/a/zimbabwe-capital-on-alert-over-cholera-outbreak/4561723.html
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Cholera outbreak strikes Malawi

waltky Well-Known Member

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Cholera outbreak strikes Malawi

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