Any outbreak of cholera is a reflection of failure- Dr Canisius BANDA
ON FAILURE
[The Irrefutable Case of Cholera And A Desperate People]
Any outbreak of cholera is a reflection of failure.
First and fundamentally, it is evidence of failure of personal hygiene at the level of the individual.
Second, it clearly illustrates failure by a government to establish, implement and sustain an existential framework that survives and thrives citizens.
Contrary to the firmly held belief of under-informed Cabinet ministers from both present and past governments, cholera is NOT caused by street vending.
Vending, being entrepreneurship, whether of the street kind or otherwise, thrives families. It is a reliable source of legitimate income security both at the household and national levels.
All that vending requires is regulation and the required infrastructural support. Vending should be legislated for and promoted. It prospers nations.
Cholera is a cultural issue. It is a reliable indicator of the civilisation and developmental phase of a people.
Cholera is a disease of poverty.
Many people erroneously think that cholera is solely the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. This view is flawed.
Cholera is a multi-sectoral challenge, a reflection of a warped societal order.
At the governmental level, when cholera breaks out, this reflects failure of the Ministry responsible for water. Access to clean and safe water by citizens keeps cholera at bay.
Poor Country and Town Planning, whose mandate it is of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, is a key predisposing factor to the outbreaks of cholera.
Cholera isa clear indictment of failure by the department of government responsible for sanitation.
Poverty, which denies citizens the required building blocks for personal hygiene, is supposed to be ended by proper economic recovery planning from the Ministry of Finance and National Planning. Presently, our economy is moribund.
Fact is, under the current national administration, the United Party for National Development [UPND], both the cost of living and poverty have worsened. It is therefore not surprising that Zambia today is facing one of the worst cholera crises in its history.
To a large degree, the Ministry of Health, which really presently is a Ministry of Diseases and Recovery Facilities, though it often shoulders all the blame for such outbreaks, its role is reactionary, primarily to treat and control the outbreak of the disease.
Note that the total budget for managing the health of Zambians goes beyond that at Ndeke House. Perception change is required at Cabinet level to successfully attain the set health indicators of the country.
To expect the Ministry of Health alone, with its current institutional framework, to meet all the health needs of Zambians is like pissing in the wind.
So far, this Ministry of Diseases and Recovery Facilities, though limited in its reach, is also failing to play its current and primary role which is to save citizens and control the disease outbreak.
In only three months, over one hundred and forty [140] citizens have died from this disease.
Since the cholera outbreak started in October 2023, over 3700 citizens have contracted the disease and this number is rising fast.
1. An alarming 273 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,719 cases since October 2023. Today being 4 January 2024.
2.. 581 patients are currently admitted in the various Cholera Treatment Centres.
3. Utterly unacceptable, and a development that requires a thorough mortality audit, 23 citizens have died just in the last 24 hours, rapidly increasing the cumulative death toll tohealth needs of Zambians is like pissing in the wind.
So far, this Ministry of Diseases and Recovery Facilities, though limited in its reach, is also failing to play its current and primary role which is to save citizens and control the disease outbreak.
In only three months, over one hundred and forty [140] citizens have died from this disease.
Since the cholera outbreak started in October 2023, over 3700 citizens have contracted the disease and this number is rising fast.
1. An alarming 273 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,719 cases since October 2023. Today being 4 January 2024.
2. 581 patients are currently admitted in the various Cholera Treatment Centres.
3. Utterly unacceptable, anda development that requires a thorough mortality audit, 23 citizens have died just in the last 24 hours, rapidly increasing the cumulative death toll to 144.
No one should die from cholera.
Cholera is both preventable and curable.
But now one of the saddest things has happened. Utterly unprecedented. It has never happened before. l have tears in my eyes. I cry.
A health worker has died. A nurse is gone. A gallant citizen, in service of her country, has now died. Under-paid but brave and committed to duty, at the frontline of this fierce battle against cholera, diligently battling to save other human beings, she has lost the battle. A nurse has died. A saviour is gone. No flag, no medal.
As Bob Dylan laments in his legendary song Blowin’ In The Wind, ‘How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died? And how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see?
Dear reader, cholera and its mortalities are a feature of failed states.
Just look for cholera anywhere in the world, and I will show you a poor, backward and failing community.
From the foregoing, it should now be clear to you, dear reader, that the responsibility for safeguarding the health of citizens and against cholera squarely lies with the Republican President.
The buck stops with him.
This outbreak is a terrible, mortal stain on his leadership.
It is a more reliable indicator of his performance than what any graph or pie-chart would show. This is what happens when the wheels fall off the governance wagon.
Cholera occurs only when a person swallows food or water contaminated with faeces having the culprit germ.
Imagine that!
It also occurs when a people’s water system is deliberately contaminated by State or non-State actors motivated by a given end.
In shady hands, Cholera can be a governance tool.
What then is the real cause of this outbreak?
Questions must be asked, and answers given.
Was it caused by the State to stifle political activity, to unite the country under one cause in the face of growing national and ethno-driven divisions? Was it started to reduce the growing tension in the country emanating from participation exclusion, growing poverty and ever skyrocketing cost of living?
Was it started by enemies of Zambia to further wreck our already ailing economy? Is it an act of war?
What is the Serotype of the responsible germ? Is it new, a variant or still the same one endemic to Zambia?
What happened to the vaccines which were given in the recent past to multitudes of citizens in Lusaka province to protect them against cholera? Are they to blame?
Why was this vaccination campaign, an interim and effective public health intervention, stopped by the UPND?
Citizens need to know the answers to these and many other questions. Barring this, our national security will remain vulnerable and, under clear and presentWhat then is the real cause of this outbreak?
Questions must be asked, and answers given.
Was it caused by the State to stifle political activity, to unite the country under one cause in the face of growing national and ethno-driven divisions? Was it started to reduce the growing tension in the country emanating from participation exclusion, growing poverty and ever skyrocketing cost of living?
Was it started by enemies of Zambia to further wreck our already ailing economy? Is it an act of war?
What is the Serotype of the responsible germ? Is it new, a variant or still the same one endemic to Zambia?
What happened to the vaccines which were given in the recent past to multitudes of citizens in Lusaka province to protect them against cholera? Are they to blame?
Why was this vaccination campaign, an interim and effective public health intervention, stopped by the UPND?
Citizens need to know the answers to these and many other questions. Barring this, our national security will remain vulnerable and, under clear and present danger.
Cabinet Office should now investigate the mental state of Zambia’s Minister of Health, Sylvia MASEBO.I worry for this friend of mine.
Her statement that Zambians should now relocate to villages to avoid cholera is not only callous and uncouth, it is also not in keeping with the expected utterances of a leader of her standing in times of crisis.
It is incongruous and unethical, akin to cracking jokes and laughing at a funeral, when mourning.
Before eating or swallowing anything, all citizens should follow the following maxim, adage, and no one will catch cholera:
“WASH IT. PEEL IT. BOIL IT. COOK IT. WARM IT. TREAT IT. OR LEAVE IT’
We remain a primitive, backward people, mentally altered or crippled by colonialism.
We are a people stripped of identity and pride, a people requiring mental liberty and restoration.
This is our inevitable destiny, self-determination and prosperity, ever reflecting the magnificence of our Maker.
The journey is long. The struggle isn’t easy. But both are worthy.
In the end, as a people, we shall get there. That our default settings as a people will be restored is inevitable.
Aluta continua!
Vitoria è certa!
Dr Canisius BANDA
Development Activist
National Health Chairman- PF
4 January