Zambian government pledges to end cholera by 2025

Photo: Nancy Palus / IRIN

A man washes his hands during a cholera prevention session

The Zambian government is committed to ending cholera by 2025 by validating the national multisectoral plan for the elimination of cholera for the 2019-2025 period. Four ministers signed a pledge to end cholera in the country at the closing ceremony. a workshop organized by the Ministry of Health to finalize and validate the cholera elimination plan. The multi-sectoral cholera elimination plan will be used to mobilize resources and guide strategies and activities to be implemented in the country to eliminate cholera.

At the ceremony, the Minister of Health, Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, said that the elimination plan would target cholera hot spots in the country. He said that although the global goal of eliminating cholera was 2030, Zambia was supposed to eliminate cholera five years earlier, in 2025. To this end, four ministers signed a pledge to end to cholera in Zambia. The Minister of Health, Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, the Minister in the Office of the Vice President, Sylvia Chalikosa, the Minister of Local Government, Vincent Mwale and the Minister of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection, Dennis Wanchinga, have signed on behalf of their ministries. The commitment of these ministries to end cholera reflects the government's commitment to a multi-sectoral approach to the fight against the disease.

The cholera elimination program has received support from cooperating partners, who have also pledged to support the implementation of the elimination plan. WHO Representative Dr. Nathan Bakyaita said at the same time that the global cholera roadmap was to reduce the number of cholera-related deaths by 90 per cent by 2030. He appreciated the fact that government's commitment to fighting cholera, he said. was demonstrated by a concerted multisectoral response that ended 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 had reaffirmed its commitment to continue to support interventions aimed at combating cholera. cholera.

At the same event, the technical head of the global working group on cholera control, Dr. Lorenzo Pezzoli, said the elimination of cholera was an important achievement in itself, as it was a crucial step towards achievement of the SDGs. According to him, cholera has killed about 95,000 people and 2 million cases worldwide. He welcomed Zambia's ambitious multisectoral approach to ending cholera. He added that the global roadmap of the WHO-led Global Task Force on Cholera to End Cholera by 2030 operationalizes the new global cholera control strategy at the global level. countries and paves the way for a world in which cholera is no longer a public health problem. threat.

The fight against cholera in Zambia will involve the need to rehabilitate slums and peri-urban areas, improve access to appropriate health care, early case management, access to safe water and adequate sanitation facilities, health literacy, and improved hygiene behaviors by engaging communities through social mobilization and risk communication. . Other key actions include: Use of oral cholera vaccines in all identified cholera outbreaks, establishment of robust surveillance, preparedness and response systems and strong laboratory capacity.