By Ndumiso Tshuma
The Ministry of Health and Care has appealed to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to provide more cholera vaccines to cover more parts of the country.
Zimbabwe was allocated only 2.3 million doses, with people taking a single dose expected to guard against cholera infections for at least six months.
However, the health ministry said more vaccines are needed to provide more than a single dose and prevent infections for longer periods.
The current vaccines were manufactured in South Korea and donated via WHO with UNICEF distributing them across 26 high-risk districts in seven provinces, including Harare, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, Masvingo, and Midlands.
In an interview with CITE, Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, confirmed that the country needed more vaccines.
“We are appealing to WHO to give us more vaccines and we have appealed to the government to also avail financial resources so that we can procure the vaccines for ourselves,” he said, noting that globally, cholera vaccines were inadequate yet vaccination has been proven to reduce the outbreak.
Dr Mombeshora said if the country received more vaccines, the ministry could cover every district so that people were protected against cholera and be able to provide second doses.
“Those who have received the first dose should get a second dose to get a three-year protection so that there is universal coverage for the whole country. One dose will give protection for six months but ideally two doses will give protection for three years,” he said.
“To those districts that have not received the vaccines, we are telling them to wait until their vaccine comes.”
Meanwhile, the health minister said although each province in the country had recorded a case, Bulawayo has fared much better in prevention and is considered the best province so far.
“In Matabeleland north, especially in Hwange, we are going to target and give vaccines,” he said.
Zimbabwe has recorded over 22 000 cholera cases as of February 12, 2023, while Dr Mombeshora said the health ministry noticed an upsurge towards the end of the year.
“An upsurge of cases was noticed mid-September last year and another huge upsurge at the end of December last year.”Mombeshora said.
“When talking of the cases, not all have tested positive because we are now treating any watery diarrhoea as cholera. We are not taking any chances with anyone with watery diarrhoea. We take it as cholera .We have established various camps throughout the country, as you know you don’t treat cholera together with other diseases.”
The minister claimed 153 cholera treatment camps had been set up across the country while Harare had two huge camps with smaller camps.
“We have now close to 500 deaths but those that are confirmed cholera deaths are just about 60. The rest of the deaths, we can say are deaths from diarrhoea and other comorbidities,” Dr Mombeshora said.
“More than 90 percent of cholera deaths have happened in the community before they even reach the hospital.”
He also urged the public to report immediately to their nearest health centre where village health workers were helping in mobilising people to access treatment centres.
“33 oral rehydration points have been set up throughout the communities and if people have got mild diarrhoea they can just go to an oral rehydration point and oral fluids will be given to them, when they are fine they go back home. If they don’t recover within 24 hours they move onto the proper cholera treatment camps.”
The minister added when Zimbabwe started handling cholera cases, the fatality rate was “high up at 2.8 percent.”
“Now it is hovering between 1.8 and at times it has gone up to two percent. That means we have seen a drop,” he remarked.
