Published by the government of Zimbabwe
31 October 2008
Harare — AT least four people have now died of cholera in an outbreak in Harare's Budiriro high-density suburb that has been traced to a single well.
Officials fear there may be further unreported casualties since all the four died in hospital.
The latest three deaths were a husband and wife and an unrelated child in another part of the suburb, the city council was told last night.
The four deaths and another 40 confirmed cases have been traced to a contaminated well dug by one house owner in the suburb.
Some Budiriro residents have been buying water from households with wells following drastic cuts in water supplies by Zinwa during the last five weeks.
Of the 40 non-fatal cases, 26 are still being treated at Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital, which has been put on an emergency footing and is only taking cholera cases while the outbreak is contained.
The City Health Department suspects the number of infected people could be much higher, taking into consideration that in past outbreaks for each patient treated there were up to 10 others who never reported to a council clinic.
The department has implemented a three-pronged strategy to contain the outbreak: quarantining ill people in the suburb, disinfecting all wells, and trucking in clean water in bowsers until Zinwa restores supplies.
The department has set up a quarantine camp in the suburb to facilitate initial treatment as well as minimise the risk of moving patients to other parts of the city.
Government and council health staff are disinfecting all wells with chloride of lime while making sure such wells are closed to the public.
City Director of Health Services Dr Stanley Mungofa told the council last night that the outbreak was the worst since 2005.
He suspected there could be other fatalities linked to the cholera outbreak once all suspicious deaths in the suburb had been investigated.
He urged the council to reintroduce the risk allowance for staff treating diseases such as cholera to ensure that staff remained dedicated to duty.
Yesterday a high-powered medical team comprising Minister of Health and Child
Welfare Dr David Parirenyatwa, town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi, Dr Mungofa, officials from the City Health Department, the World Health Organisation and Unicef toured the suburb to assess the situation first-hand.
The team recommended that people stop fetching water from the shallow wells for the meantime as Government, Harare City Council and their partners work on disinfecting the water sources.
Addressing residents of the suburb yesterday, Dr Parirenyatwa dispelled rumours that the wells had been poisoned.
"Investigations by my ministry and its partners have revealed that the persons who died and all the cases that were attended to in the suburbs were a result of cholera. To verify the extent of the problem, we have taken samples from the wells for testing, but as of now we recommend that you stop using water from these wells until they are certified free of the bacterium.
"Unicef will soon provide water bowsers to alleviate the situation while the water wells are being disinfected against the bacterium that causes cholera. I want to dispel rumours that these wells had been poisoned as investigations have shown that the patients were suffering from cholera. It is important to educate people in the suburbs of the symptoms of the disease to avoid unnecessary confusion," Dr Parirenyatwa said.
He said the country had recorded cases of cholera in two provinces, namely Harare Metropolitan and Mashonaland West, where at least 30 people had died. As a result, he said, people needed to take all the necessary precautions against the disease.
Dr Mungofa said that council would meet with its health partners this morning to map out strategies to stop the disease from spreading further.
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