Takudzwa Chikakayi
Harare City Health Director, Prosper Chonzi yesterday confirmed a Cholera outbreak in the capital and encouraged residents to stay on high alert sighting the disease’s potential to spread rapidly.
This comes at a time cholera outbreaks have been noted regionally with Zimbabwe so far having recorded so far recorded more than 500 cases.
“We have an outbreak of Cholera in the City of Harare. We now have 21 suspected cases, 7 of which have been confirmed. The confirmed cases are mainly coming from the Western Suburbs, with Budiriro having 4 of the confirmed cases, Glenview 3 having 2 of them and Mount Pleasant having one.”
“We ought to take this outbreak seriously, as it has the potential to spread like a veld fire, even in places where there are no prevalent cases,” Chonzi said.
He added: “ Cholera is a preventable disease, people must practise good personal hygiene such as the washing of hands before eating, after visiting the toilet, eating food whilst it’s still hot, avoiding gatherings and avoiding buying food from any unlicensed sources.”
Meanwhile, vaccination and treatment of all diarrhea and abdominal discomfort cases is ongoing for free at council clinics.
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