Zambia on health alert

  1. Posted on Saturday 6 December 2008 - 07:15
    Sanday
    Image of Sanday
    Sanday Chongo Kabange, AfricaNews reporter in Lusaka, Zambia Photo: klaartje Jaspers
    Zambia has been placed under health alert following the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe. The country has with immediate effect sealed off its borderline with Zimbabwe following a cholera outbreak that has killed close to 500 people in that country. Cholera is endemic in the Southern African state.
    klaartje_jaspers_Zambia_08.jpg
    Zambia’s Deputy Minister for Health Mwendoi Akakandelwa said the cholera outbreak in the troubled Southern African state has spilled over into Zambia after a Zimbabwean national died at the resort border town of Siavonga, about 600 kilometers south of the capital city Lusaka.

    Zambia has in the recent past recorded a significant number of cholera cases in selected parts of the country and mostly those that border Zimbabwe.

    Akakandelwa said following the death of a Zimbabwean as a result of cholera in Zambia, the Zambian government has quarantined a mother and a child and that health experts have been dispatched to all the areas that border Zambia and Zimbabwe.

    He told reporters in Lusaka, “all health institutions through out the country have been put on cholera alert and as at December 3, over 1000 cases with eight deaths have been recorded”.

    He has however ruled out any immediate plans of completely shutting down the Zambia-Zimbabwe borders.

    Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation in Zambia has given the ministries of health and local government motor vehicles for anti-cholera surveillance activities.

    World Health Organisation country representative in Zambia Olusegun Babanyi said the United Nations will continue to provide technical support to Zambia whenever there are disease outbreaks such as cholera.

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