Wenslus Murape
H-Metro Reporter
PUBLIC health experts say there is need to keep eyes on the ball to ensure the gains of the Government’s spirited and successful efforts to tame cholera are safeguarded.
The government recently declared that Zimbabwe was now free of the disease.
President of the Zimbabwe College of Public Health Physicians, Dr Brian Abel Maponga, emphasised the critical role of improving water and sanitation infrastructure.
“Long-term strategies require resolving the water and sanitation problems in growing populations, especially in urban areas,” he said.
“The established settlements, and also the new settlements, we know those areas are having problems with water and many times families have to seek water from boreholes and deep wells.
“There were also some water quality assessments being done even on those boreholes that are in use be it in Harare or outside.
“Some of them are contaminated so what it means is we need to put all hands on deck to make sure that all sectors, with the lead of the government across the different government departments, partner the private partners and we use the energy and resources that we had during the outbreak to now focus on resolving the continuous problems we are seeing with water and sanitation.
“Right now is the time to act.”
Public health expert, Dr Kudzai Masunda, said:
“So, Zimbabwe developed a cholera elimination strategy up to the year 2028, in line with the global roadmap of ending cholera by 2030, and this strategy has several pillars and several arms that it is looking at to manage cholera outbreaks.
“So, long term, we have healthcare workers or a healthcare system that needs to be responsive to cholera.
“It means we need competent people who can identify and manage cholera cases. We also need to improve on our prevention strategies and this we have already started to do.”
Online Reporter