Zimbabwe Fights Cholera with Vaccination Drive

Harare has been the epicenter of the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe. (Wikimedia Commons)

The government of Zimbabwe launched an oral cholera vaccination drive on October 3 in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The vaccine is the latest in a string of measures designed to combat the disease, which has killed an estimated 48 people since the latest outbreak began on September 6, according to a study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The government had already called a state of emergency and banned street vendors from selling fresh fruit and vegetables, but Al Jazeera reports that these measures alone were not enough to curb the spread of the disease.

Over 1.4 million vaccines will be made available to immunize those in the suburbs of the capital city, Harare, and nearby Chitungwiza. The demographic density of these zones renders them high-risk areas for the outbreak of contagious diseases, and the latest epidemic reflects this trend—according to data from the same UN study, Harare has been the epicenter of the outbreak, with 98 percent of recorded cases.

This is not the first time the deadly disease has rocked Zimbabwe. BBC reported that in 2008, then-President Robert Mugabe’s government struggled to raise funds to address an outbreak that affected more than 100,000 people. Similar concerns over finances persist in 2018. The finance minister has attempted to fund the government’s response through an online crowdfunding scheme. This plan was widely criticised by Zimbabweans, some of whom took to Twitter to protest the leadership’s corrupt priorities and mismanagement of public funds.

Cholera has become a recurring burden for many states on the continent. At the same time as Zimbabwe’s outbreak, Niger experienced an epidemic that killed 68 people, and heavy floods in Nigeria provided ideal conditions for an outbreak, which, according to Al Jazeera, has killed 100 people in just two weeks. Overall, Kenya’s Daily Nation reports that eight African countries are currently battling cholera.

The continued prevalence of the waterborne disease can partly be explained by severe rainy seasons this year, during which floods of stagnant water and overflowing sewers have increased the spread of infection. However, rapid urbanization and poor sanitation are also to blame. Cholera has historically affected many regions of the world, but 20th century scientific breakthroughs on its nature—crucially, the understanding that it spreads by water and human feces—have largely eliminated its impact across the Western world. As UNICEF cholera specialist Dr. Julien Graveleau confirmed to the Telegraph, “cholera is both an emergency and a development issue, and on the development side not enough has been done.” Even in especially wet African regions, better public sewage and water treatment in overcrowded areas could do much to mitigate the public health risk.

This is an especially pertinent lesson for the current outbreak in Zimbabwe. Although Harare Mayor Herbert Gombe has declared the current outbreak “under control,” more effort is needed to prevent the problem from returning. The minister of health has acknowledged the extent of the problem, stressing that the current vaccination programme is only a stopgap while the government works to implement more permanent infrastructural solutions aimed at ensuring access to “clean water and sanitation processes” for all.