The previous regime’s focus on leading a multi-sectoral approach to the fight against cholera and the commitment to end the disease by 2025 should have been embraced by the new dawn government instead of reinventing the wheel.
Lusaka, Dec. 16 – The Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI), as early as October 2023, reported an outbreak of cholera in Lusaka. Government, through the Ministry of Health, failed to act on the ZNPHI information resulting in hundreds of reported cases and deaths that could have been prevented.
The latest health mishap, again, highlights the cost of politicizing the health sector. The Patriotic Front government had committed itself to ending cholera by the year 2025 through the validation of the national multi-sectoral cholera elimination plan for the period 2019 to 2025.
The multi-sectoral cholera elimination plan was supposed to be used to mobilise resources and guide the strategies and activities to be implemented in the country in order to eliminate cholera. The former Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, guided, then, that the elimination plan would target the cholera hotspots in the country.
Dr. Chilufya stated that although the global target to eliminate cholera was 2030, Zambia was set to eliminate cholera 5 years earlier, in 2025. To that effect, four Cabinet Ministers signed a commitment to end cholera in Zambia.
They were Minister of Health, Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, Minister in the Office of the Vice President, Sylvia Chalikosa, Minister of Local Government, Vincent Mwale and Minister of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection, Dennis Wanchinga.
The commitment to end cholera by these Ministries represented the Patriotic Front government’s focus on leading a multi-sectoral approach to the fight against the disease. Is there need for the UPND government to reinvent the wheel?
Also Read: The Health Sector in Zambia will never be the same because of Dr. Chitalu Chilufya.
“I wish to recognise and appreciate Dr. Chitalu Chilufya and his commitment to resolving Zambia’s longstanding weaknesses in its public health systems!” – Dr. Mathews Chabu Kalumba.
The Dr. Chitalu Chilufya led cholera elimination agenda did equally receive support from Cooperating Partners who had also pledged to support the implementation of the elimination plan.
The, then, WHO Representative, Dr. Nathan Bakyaita said the global roadmap to end cholera was targeted at reducing cholera related deaths by 90% by the year 2030. He appreciated the government’s commitment to the fight against cholera, which he said was demonstrated through a concerted multi-sectoral response which halted the 2017-2018 cholera outbreak. He said that the UN family had worked closely with other stakeholders in the development of the cholera elimination plan and reaffirmed the commitment to continue supporting interventions aimed at combating cholera.
And the technical officer from the global taskforce on cholera control, Dr. Lorenzo Pezzoli added that ending cholera was an important achievement in its own right, because it was a critical step towards achieving the SDGs. He stated that cholera killed an estimated 95,000 people and 2 million cases globally. He was pleased with Zambia’s ambitious multi-sectoral approach to end cholera. He said that the WHO-led Global Task Force on Cholera Control’s Global Roadmap to end cholera by 2030 operationalises the new global strategy for cholera control at the country level and provides a concrete path toward a world in which cholera would no longer be a public health threat.
The former Minister of Health further guided that fighting cholera in Zambia would involve the need to upgrade compounds and peri urban areas, improving access to appropriate health care, early case management, access to adequate safe water and sanitation, health literacy and improved hygiene behaviours by engaging communities through social mobilisation and risk communication.
Other key actions he highlighted included the use of Oral Cholera Vaccines in all the identified cholera hotspots, establishing strong systems for surveillance, epidemic preparedness and response and strong laboratory capacity.
Unless Hon. Sylvia Masebo has a better road map, there’s no need to throw the baby with dirty bathwater!
Politicizing the health sector is not only retrogressive, it’s irresponsible as it comes at a huge cost in whichever way one looks at it. And as Zambia struggles with anthrax, do you know that Dr. Chilufya had earlier made a submission in Parliament on the issue?
The former Health Minister advised to shift from looking at diseases in animals in isolation which confines the nation to containment and control of outbreaks.
Also Read: Dr. Chilufya urges Govt to implement the One Health Approach.
“We must invest in robust systems that are integrated and do not only ensure sustainable livestock health, but also protect humans and other habitats of the ecosystem from pandemics!”
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