Zambia’s health and child care provincial health promotion officer George Kambondo said government had since activated a hotline that could be used to report any health matters and complaints.
Zimbabwe’s health and child care minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said the cholera death toll in Zimbabwe now stood at 49‚ with the youngest victim being an eight-month-old. He added that 21% of the dead were children under the age of five.
The rise in deaths and increase in cholera cases is partly because of drug resistance. As such Government abandoned the first line of cholera treatment particularly doxycline‚ ciprofloxacin and tetracycline antibiotics.
“We now have to use the second line of drugs. Unfortunately they are in short supply‚” said the Moyo.
The minister added that if there is no timely boost the country would be plunged into a serious crisis as cholera cases kept increasing.
“We have a donor who donated azithromycin but still it’s in short supply. Our hope is that what we ordered arrives before we run out‚” he said.