The cholera epidemic that is haunting the country is likely to
continue wrecking havoc because there are no changes on major factors
that fuel its spread.
The challenges include inadequate education on basic hygiene to the
communities, lack of safe water and poor enforcement of bylaws enacted
by local authorities to check food vending still hold.
The outbreak was first reported on August 15, 2015 in Dar es Salam
but has so far spread to Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro and Coast
regions.
According to a recent United Nations report, the disease has killed
54 people and 3,559 others were suspected or confirmed to have
contracted the disease.
Speaking to ‘The Guardian’ yesterday Health and Social Welfare
minister Dr Seif Rashid said controlling Cholera is difficult and a big
challenge not only for Tanzania but also globally due to the nature and
source of the malady.
Dr Rashid said the most affected areas are those with squatter such
as Mburahati, Kigogo, Buguruni, Vingunguti in Dar es Salaam to mention
the few, whereby the water source system especially from locally dug
boreholes, intermingle with the toilet holes.
“It is not easy to put Cholera on check because its spread has been
contributed by negligence of people in the society who are not
considering the pre-cautions issued by the health workers, including
that of drinking boiled and cooled water, washing hands before eating
and after visiting toilets, eating hot foods...,” he said.
The minster went on to say that the big problem which seems to be
ill-fated is controlling the digging of toilet holes which should be
done at a distance of between two and three metres from where the
boreholes are located. This could be possible if the water system would
be separated from the toilet system for at least 100 metres from each.
He said the bacteria causing Cholera are easily spread through wet environment with lots of garbage.
He called upon the citizenry to well boil drinking water, and
consider preparing food at the sanitation areas to avoid being
contaminated by the disease or use water guard tablets to add into water
before drinking.
Elaborated why the death toll from Cholera has been rising, Dr
Rashid said the situation is because patients with the disease are taken
to hospital at a bad stage - after they have lost much water and
minerals due to extreme vomiting.
“I would like to advise people at individual and society levels to
immediately take the patient to nearby hospitals after suspecting they
have signs of Cholera for urgently treatment.
“Besides, they should save the other members of the family from being infected with the disease,” he said.
Sikika Executive Director Irene Kiria challenged the government for
failure to improve its infrastructures, especially sewerage systems,
and failure to control people from living in unplanned areas where
eruptions of the diseases exist.SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
No comments:
Post a Comment