Lupane records first cholera cases

LUPANE has recorded its first cases of cholera since the country’s recent outbreak after two out of three people with diarrhoea symptoms tested positive for the disease.

One of them is a teacher from a school outside Lupane Centre. She is the only one in hospital, but her condition had improved.

Lupane district medical officer, Dr George Mutizira, said the situation is under control.

“We had three suspected cases of cholera and two of them tested positive on rapid testing.

“These are our first cases and these are people who had travelled to Hwange and they presented with diarrhoea,” he said.

Dr Mutizira said contact tracing is underway.

“The good thing is that they are stable and we are managing them. Of course, we are doing contact tracing to check if there is anyone to be monitored,” he said.

“We have been doing awareness campaigns since cholera started, but we are glad because water in Lupane is not a problem.

“As a district, we had prepared very well for any possible cases which is why we were able to move in quickly and admit the patients to contain the spread.”

In Hwange where 287 suspected cases were recorded from January 15, 40 were confirmed and one death has been recorded.

Hwange district medical officer, Dr Fungayi Musinami, said the situation had now been contained and no new cases had been recorded.

She said surveillance will continue, especially in suspected hot zones such as Hwange urban and fishing camps in Simangani which were the most affected.

“We last had new cases last week, but generally the cholera situation has gone down.

“The good thing is that our district does not have too many unhygienic gatherings as most venues are catered for in terms of Wash.

“So we didn’t stop gatherings and our focus is on awareness and information sharing on prevention,” said Dr Musinami.

“Our environmental health staff are continuing to monitor where there are gatherings. So as long as we don’t stop surveillance, we will always contain new infections.”

There are several fishing camps along the Zambezi River which have no ablution facilities.

The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe began in September last year and has so far claimed the lives of over 50 people, while hundreds have been infected. — @ncubeleon