Zimbabwe has now recorded 447 cholera-linked deaths and over 20 000 cumulative suspected cases since the beginning of the outbreak in February last year, with a case fatality rate of 1.8 percent.
Health and Child Care Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said this on Tuesday during a joint media briefing with his Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development counterpart Dr Anxious Masuka which Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere also attended.
He said the country’s cumulative suspected cases stood at 20 121 health authorities are now treating any diarrheal case as cholera for management purposes so that they do not delay managing and lose lives.
“As a result of our interventions of taking every diarrheal case as cholera, we have managed to have very a low case fatality rate as compared to other countries in Africa,” he said.
Dr Mombeshora said the World Health Organisation (WHO) accepts a case fatality rate of one or less percent.
He said both confirmed and suspected deaths are 447 cases since the outbreak in February last year.
Confirmed cases are those that would have had specimens sent to the lab and certified that its cholera and most of the cases in Zimbabwe are suspected because they would not have been confirmed in the lab.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Dr Mombeshora said six people died from cholera, adding that it was a huge number as any death was not acceptable.
At least 232 and patients are currently detained in hospitals across the country with 60 districts having been affected so far.
Harare, Chitungwiza, Buhera, Gutu, Chiredzi, Mazowe and Mbire have been identified as the hot spots, with 153 active cholera centres having been established throughout the country.
Dr Mombeshora dismissed reports in some sections of the media that in Africa, cholera was only prevalent in Zimbabwe and Zambia, saying over 37 African countries are currently grappling with the disease.
He attributed the recent surges in the country around the festive season to religious, family and funeral gatherings as well as movements in artisanal mining areas.
To mitigate against the ongoing cholera outbreak, he said his ministry has activated the incident management system and appointed an incident manager.
Dr Mombeshora also dismissed some social media reports that cholera cases were treated under the trees in Zimbabwe due to lack of appropriate facilities, saying patients were treated on the site to avoid to avoid contaminating hospitals. New Ziana
