Story by Tapiwa Machemedze

Shamva district has broken the cholera outbreak cycle with no new cases being recorded in the area over the past 10 days.

The district is winning the fight against cholera after managing the outbreak to low levels following a peak of around 18 cases per day within the last two months.

District Medical Officer, Dr Tendai Kamuriwo told the ZBC News this Wednesday that communication and community engagement efforts are still underway to ensure the total eradication of cholera in the community.

“As a district, we are happy that we have seen a steady decline in cases. In the past two weeks, we have had more than ten days where there were no suspected cholera cases reported and this has been seen as a result of several efforts that were made in controlling the outbreak but one major one is that of risk communication and community engagement, we had to have the whole community and partners taken on board so that we fight this outbreak together. Yes, we still have water hygiene and sanitation issues to be addressed in the long term so that we have a permanent solution.”

The local community is being encouraged to adhere to safe water and sanitation hygiene practices, despite the reduction in cholera cases.

This comes at a time when Chaminuka Rural District Council has procured a borehole sinking rig to improve the availability of safe drinking water in un-serviced areas within Shamva.