Bulawayo prepared to handle 100 cholera cases

Bulawayo is ready to attend to up to 100 cholera patients without the disease spiraling out of control or the local authory seeking help from outside.

This was said by Bulawayo Director of Health Services Dr Edwin Sibanda-Mzingwane yesterday on the sidelines of the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province Disaster Risk Management Workshop at Redwood in Figtree.

Since a national outbreak was recorded on February 12, Bulawayo was the only province that was free from cholera until the first case was reported earlier this month.

Giving an update of cholera outbreak responses in the city, Dr Sibanda-Mzingwane said after the first cases was recorded two weeks ago, no other case was reported.

“We are ready to manage up to 100 cases, probably without any external help. We have prepositioned commodities for cholera management at all our health centres such that the first treatment can be done at a local level clinic before our cholera patients are conveyed to our treatment centre at Thorngroove,” said Dr Sibanda-Mzingwane.

He said the city is on alert in terms of cholera.

“The Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Mr Paul Nyoni said we must preposition commodities for disaster risk management in the province. We are already doing that for cholera because we cannot wait for the drips to be moved from the pharmacy to the clinics when we have a patient, the commodities are already in place,” said Dr Sibanda-Mzingwane.

“At the moment we don’t have a patient in care. But the ones we have looked after, the one who had a rapid diagnostic test confirmed case, the first one in Bulawayo that we had and was discharged. We have not had another one but we remain alert.”