By Tawanda Musariri
The World Health Organisation in Zimbabwe has, together with the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (GAVI Alliance), mobilised $2.6 million for oral cholera vaccinations expected to immunise majority people in high risk suburbs of Harare.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and cabinet were the first to be administered the oral drug, Euvichol-Plus. Harare is the epicentre of a crippling cholera outburst that surfaced 42 weeks ago, killing 55 people with thirty of the deaths recorded at Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital alone.
Dr Marc Poncin, WHO consultant on oral cholera vaccine (OCV) told the media in Mazowe on Thursday that his organisation, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Health and Childcare, GAVI and the city of Harare were working in synergy to immunise at least 800 000 residents of Harare in cholera-prone suburbs.
Glenview and Budiriro are the saddle of the disease which has had more than 9 500 suspected and reported cases and 200 confirmed cases.
The mass immunisation program which started in the cabinet boardroom spread its wings to Glenview and surrounding suburbs in order to protect the vulnerable communities.
Speaking at the same function, director for Epidemiology and Disease Control in the MoHCC, Dr Portia Manangazira said, "As Ministry of Health, we are looking at how we can eradicate cholera. And as part of the vision 2030, which has come to be known as the post MDG era, and now known as the Sustainable Development Goals, we are looking at eliminating cholera as a public health issue by 2030.”
The City of Harare is taking the mass immunisation to nine other high density suburbs with antiquated water and sanitation facilities.
The program, said Dr Poncin, was racing against time to have immunised residents of high risk suburbs before the onset of the rainy season. These suburbs include Tafara, Caledonia, Waterfalls South, Hopley, Mbare, Hatcliffe and Dzivaresekwa.
Since the arrival of land barons, Harare has mutated into a giant high density rural area without a running tap water and sewerage system. Resultantly, residents in the new settlement patterns have resorted to sinking wells on their properties to catch underground water. On the same properties, residents sink sewer soak-ways and blair toilets, creating a high density mesh of water wells and blair toilets that pass each other their contents in the intricate close relationship. The seepage of faecal matter into wells where water is obtained for consumption has become the tangent of cholera transmission.
Cholera bacteria thrive well in faecal matter and are transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food and water.
Social Mobilisation Officer for Immunisation, Vaccines and Emergencies with the WHO Zorodzai Machekanyanga implored the media to complement the cholera fight effort through informing the public with accurate, well researched and packaged stories that encourage communities to take proactive measures against the killer disease. She said the media was an important stakeholder in the health delivery systems, more so in emergencies such as the one presented with cholera and other waterborne diseases in Zimbabwe.
