From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZAMBIA: ARMED FORCES DEPLOYED TO FIGHT CHOLERA
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 16:39:18 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Asia, southern
Title: ZAMBIA: ARMED FORCES DEPLOYED TO FIGHT CHOLERA


an inter press service feature

by jowie mwiinga

lusaka, nov 13 (ips) -- uninformed visitors to zambia's
copperbelt town of kitwe could be excused for thinking the city
was under siege.

camouflaged army trucks and ambulances weave in and out of
residential areas, ferrying the dead and patients. gun-toting
officers man the city's inlets, accompanying medical staff who
conduct cursory inspections of commuters.

at the cemetery on the fringes of the city, grim-faced army
personnel bury the dead, sometimes in mass graves, and when the
death toll dwindles, in one roughly dug trench.

these are victims of the most devastating cholera epidemic
ever experienced in zambia. never before had such an outbreak
caught the government here so unprepared.

the finacially strapped ministry of health has been unable to
contain the epidemic, which by wednesday this week had claimed
over 370 lives in just two weeks, forcing government to deploy
defence and security forces to combat it.

the defence forces have seconded medical doctors and nurses
as well as general manpower to the hastily organised cholera
task force on the copperbelt province.

''we couldn't have handled this outbreak without the
military'', a medical officer at the congested kitwe general
hospital said.

government officials, including health minister boniface
kawimbe, say the epidemic has now been contained.

while the number of deaths has dropped from an avarage of 70
per day last week to about 10 this week, the root problem, poor
water supply and sewerage facilities as well as heaps of garbage
in the city, persists.

according to the ministry of health, the current outbreak
was caused by shortage of water treatment chemicals in kitwe.

government this week moved the responsibility of water supply
in the district to the parastatal mining conglomerate, zambia
consolidated copper mines (zccm), which has since started
treating the water. (more/ips)


zambia: armed (2)

but many other districts in the southern african country run
out of water treatment chemicals periodically keeping fresh
outbreaks imminent.

while the number of reported cases in kitwe is declining,
public ignorance on the causes and effects of the disease could
easily result in an increase of victims.

despite considerable efforts by the government to create
awareness, the people of kitwe's sprawling mine townships remain
indifferent to the dangers of cholera.

mass gatherings, including funerals and beer parties, which
have been banned by the kitwe local authority to check the
spread of the disease, are still held in the townships.

people fail to take heed of hygienic advice that they boil
drinking water and avoid unneccessary body contact.

by thursday the disease had spread to the zambian capital,
lusaka, where 19 cases have been diagnosed at sikanze police
barracks.

water supply and sewerage services in the capital are
inadequate, particularly in the congested shanty suburbs.

with the rainy season setting in, it is feared that the
epidemic could easily reach unprecedented proportions if
preventive measures are not taken immediately.
(end/ips/jm/ar/92)
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