By Charles Mgbolu
Like a bloodthirsty killer in a frightful tale, cholera, a bacterial disease, has successfully mastered the art of aggressively yet silently creeping up behind several countries and then unleashing deaths.
Cholera is caused by the ingestion of contaminated food or water that contains the bacteria.
‘’The agent vibrio cholera is able to withstand the acidity of the stomach when it gets in and goes to the intestine to multiply and cause the havoc of excessive excretion of fluids,’’ Doctor Adedoyin Ogunyemi, a public health physician in Lagos, Nigeria, explains to TRT Afrika.
Zambia, a nation of 20 million people, is currently grappling with an outbreak. The country frequently faces cholera cases but this is the worst outbreak in two decades.
Since October last year, authorities have reported over more than 10,000 cases and more than 400 deaths.
The spread of the disease has forced the Zambian authorities to delay school resumption after the end of year holidays with parents.
In 2023, the Democratic Republic of Congo recorded more than 48,280 suspected cases of cholera, including 421 deaths, according to WHO data.
It is said to be one of the worst outbreaks in the country since 2017.
North Kivu province has reported 62% of the country's cholera cases amid massive population displacement and poor coverage of drinking water and hygienic latrines.
Most affected are the camps for internally displaced persons around the provincial capital, Goma.
Worrying figures
WHO says preliminary data shows cholera rose alarmingly in 2023, with over 667 000 cases and 4000 deaths globally.
In 2021, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reported 111,062 cases of cholera and 3,604 deaths across the country.
Countries such as Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burundi, and Ethiopia have also battled deadly cholera outbreaks.
August 2023, UNICEF said the rapidly spreading infection in several African countries was ‘’not just an outbreak but an emergency for children’’.
Public health officials like Doctor Adedoyin Ogunyemi warn that the bloody trail of the disease will not end if the indices capable of breaking the bacterium’s epidemiological triangle are not created.
‘’As long as you continue to have poor access to clean, safe water; as long as there is a lack of basic sanitation, climatic change, and persistent flooding in poorly built infrastructural drainages, then this deadly bacterial infection will continue to spread,’’ Ogunyemi tells TRT Afrika.
On Tuesday, January 16, Zambia kicked off a mass oral cholera vaccination drive targeting township hotspots in the capital, Lusaka, which has been severely hit by the outbreak.
The drive started with the 1.4 million doses received on Monday from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has allocated the Southern African nation 1.7 million doses of the vaccine.
Launching the campaign in George Township, Lusaka, Zambia’s Health Minister, Sylvia Masebo, said residents will be given one dose each instead of the recommended two doses because the vaccines are insufficient to cater for everyone.
“The vaccine will also be administered to our health workers, who have been at the forefront of fighting cholera,” said Masebo.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has urged citizens to continue taking precautions in line with health guidelines because the outbreak was ''still alive.''
Dangerous short-cut
Health officials warn that vaccination alone is not enough. They call for more efforts in tackling the environmental setbacks that encourage the spread of the bacteria in the first place.
‘’It is very unfair to jump on the securities provided by vaccines when many people in these cholera-prone regions still do not have the basic necessities of life, such as safe and clean drinking water,’’ Alfred Darko, a public health doctor in Accra, Ghana, tells TRT Afrika.
Dr. Ogunyemi agrees that the root causes of the the deadly disease must be tackled.
‘’We need a multi-sectoral approach. The ministries of water resources, rural development, and urban planning are all partners in ensuring that infrastructure is safe for people.’’
WHO warns the global resurgence of cholera remains a grade 3 emergency, the highest internal level for a health emergency requiring a comprehensive global response.
