Shylet Maposa
Children and youths were the most affected by the cholera outbreak with 12 827 cases reported during the recent cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe due to insufficient safe water supplies, which led to people using contaminated wells and boreholes.
Deputy Director of EDC or Communicable Diseases, Dr. Isaac Phiri indicated that children and youths were largely affected by the 2018 cholera outbreak that mainly affected the city of Harare.
“Cumulatively 12 827 suspected cholera cases were reported with 1025 being children under the age of two years , 1100 children between 2-4 years, 2146 children between 5-17 years and 4 359 youths from the age of 18- 45 carried the large burden of this recent cholera outbreak,” said Dr Phiri.
“We found that more children were affected in this outbreak both males and females similarly “he added.
The cholera cases have reduced due to the interventions deployed by Ministry of Health and Child Care that include oral cholera vaccine launched on the 8th of October 2018.
World Health Organization (WHO) report of 5 October 2018 confirmed that (56%) of the affected were between the ages of 5 and 35 years.
Youths were most affected by cholera mainly because they are the ones who are more active in domestic roles such as cleaning, fetching water, preparing food and also taking care of infected family members in cases of outbreaks.
Primarily, cholera is caused by eating food or drinking water that is contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholera.
Due to the mobility of children and youths, they are likely to be affected more especially in high density suburbs like Glenview, which is an active trading area.
