Anthrax, Cholera Outbreaks Hit Zambia, East and Southern Africa Faces Worst Epidemic

In recent months, East and Southern Africa have been gripped by a severe anthrax outbreak that has struck multiple countries, including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Zambia, already facing its worst anthrax epidemic in more than a decade, has recorded new deaths caused by cholera, health authorities in the southern African country reported on Tuesday.

Four people died of cholera in the capital Lusaka in 24 hours, bringing the number of victims of this infection to 64 for the entire country since the start of the year.

As of November 20, 2023, the outbreak has left a trail of devastation, with 684 suspected human cases reported from 44 out of 116 districts in nine of Zambia’s 10 provinces. The Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) stands at 0.6%, resulting in four tragic deaths. Sinazongwe district bears the brunt of the crisis, accounting for 287 cases, which represents 42% of the total 684 cases, and two of the four reported deaths. The provinces most severely affected include Southern (370 cases; 54%), Western (84 cases; 12%), Lusaka (82 cases; 12%), Eastern (66 cases; 10%), and Muchinga (47 cases; 7%). Alarming, however, is that the majority of symptomatic cases were epidemiologically linked to confirmed cases but not formally tested.

According to the National Institute of Public Health of Zambia, 46 of these deaths were recorded in the capital,  over the same period with 1,600 infections Acute diarrhoea infection caused by the absorption of food or water contaminated by bacteria, cholera is on the rise on the continent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Health Minister Sylvia Masebo said the government was distributing chlorine to purify water in areas affected by the epidemic and called on the population to respect strict hygiene measures.

These new deaths come days after the WHO announced that the country was facing its worst anthrax outbreak since 2011. Since the start of the year, the; anthrax – oranthrax – has claimed four lives and 700 suspected cases in the country, according to the WHO.

The bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which survives for decades in the form of spores in land where animals that died of anthrax or carried the disease have been buried in the past, is transmissible to the disease. man and potentially fatal in its rarest forms.

According to the WHO, 26 of the suspected cases in Zambia come from “consumption of meat taken from the carcasses of three hippos”. The organization warned of a “high” risk of the anthrax epidemic spreading to neighboring countries, given “the frequent (cross-border) movements of populations and animals”.

Besides Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe have also recorded cases anthrax this year, with a total of 20 deaths and some 1,100 suspected cases.

-With Agency Input

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