HARARE – The government says it is investigating why the majority of cholera deaths were recorded within health institutions, the Ministry of Health has revealed.

Now declared a national disaster, the cholera outbreak was reported in early September and had claimed 55 lives from the 9,687 reported cases, 9,455 suspected and 232 confirmed cases.

Health authorities admit hospital staff were overstretched, poorly trained and dispirited due to lack of investment in health.

The ministry’s director Epidemiology and Disease Control Portia Manangazira told journalists attending a cholera sensitisation meeting that most of those who died in the ongoing cholera outbreak lost their lives after presenting at government and council clinics.

“We got worried with institutional deaths. The majority of the deaths were happening within institutions. By right, someone is not supposed to die when they have presented at an institution alive,” Manangazira said Thursday.

Manangazira blamed the inadequate allocations to health which have left the sector working with skeletal staff who are not well capacitated to quickly identify and manage patients well.

She explained: “Case management has been a big issue with this cholera outbreak. Now we have a situation where these cadres were seeing 600 patients a day at the peak of the outbreak. How many staff? We also found that the capacity is lacking within staff but we don’t have resources to train them.

“World Health Organisation standards say an outbreak should be detected in 24 hours, reported in 48 hours but with the Gweru typhoid outbreak it was detected six weeks later. We need adequate resources; the health budget is inadequate. We can’t work miracles.”

According to the director, of the 55 dead, two died at Harare Hospital, six died before admission, seven were community deaths and the rest were recorded at council facilities with Beatrice Infectious Hospital recording the highest deaths.

Government supported by the WHO and GAVI launched a vaccine early this month to combat the now drug resistant cholera. At least 672 671 doses of the targeted 793 554 doses have been administered in cholera hotspots.

Manangazira said unfortunately, the cholera outbreak has affected all age groups including children under the age of one who are not eligible to get the dose.

The country has been experiencing persistent waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. The worst outbreak of 2008 and 2009 killed more than 4,000 people and infected nearly 100,000 owing to poor water and sanitation systems.

WHO cholera vaccination expert Marc Poncin said while the vaccine protects people from cholera for three to five years, authorities, particularly the City of Harare, should use the window to revamp water and sanitation systems to ensure there is no recurrence.

“The vaccine is not by itself a response to a cholera outbreak. There is need for access to clean water, adequate sanitation and good personal hygiene,” he said.

Plans are to administer 1,4 million cholera vaccinations at a cost of $2,6 million funded by GAVI.