Disclaimer: - The content of this document is for information purposes only and not an official record of the United Nations’ views. 1
UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Zimbabwe
OCHA
NATIONS UNIES
Bureau de Coordination des des Affaires Humanitaires Zimbabwe
Summary
The devastating cholera epidemic continues to spread, with a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban, recording more than 378 suspected cases and 121 deaths. As of 15 December, 9 out of 10 provinces (48 out of 62 districts) in the country are affected with a total count of 978 deaths and a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 5.3%. So far most cases have been reported in Harare/Budiriro (8,454 cases, 208 deaths and a CFR of 2.5%), followed by Beitbridge (3,456 cases, 91 deaths and a CFR of 2.6%), Mudzi (1,237 cases, 78 deaths and a CFR of 6.3%) and Chitungwiza (551 cases, 99 deaths and a CFR of 18 %). Higher CFRs have been found in other areas (see also map below and the Epidemiological Bulletin). During the past week, increases have been recorded in both cholera cases and deaths.
Cholera continues to affect various parts of the Southern African region, with the Republic of South Africa reporting 859 cumulative cases, 11 deaths and a CFR of 1.2%, the bulk of the cases (731) reported in Limpopo province. Cases have also been reported in Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia, albeit in much smaller numbers. According to the latest WHO figures, there have been 200 human cases of anthrax and 8 deaths reported since November with the consumption of contaminated meat identified as the most likely cause.
I. Situation analysis
According to WHO major causes for the current outbreak continue to be: lack of clean drinking water and sanitation, weak health services, and health staff strike, mainly by nurses. Health staff is unable to obtain salaries from the bank due to the shortage of banknotes, making it too burdensome and expensive to travel to work. About 75% of the cases in Harare come from the last 2 weeks, upwards by about 3,000 during that time. WHO is looking at a minimum clinical attack rate of 5‐10% in Budiriro, western Harare. Cholera transmission continues to be intense within Harare city, though as of 9 December, the main focus had not shifted beyond the already affected high‐density suburbs in the southwest of the city.
Weekly Situation Report on Cholera in Zimbabwe
Issue Number 06
17 December 2008
Disclaimer: - The content of this document is for information purposes only and not an official record of the United Nations’ views. 2
A major outbreak has been recorded in Chegutu District, northern Zimbabwe, with more than 600 cumulative cases in only a few weeks time. It has also been noted that excessive IV fluid use could result in a supply gap if no measures are taken.
Overall response concerning the curative aspects of the outbreak is under control, while gaps remain in prevention activities, social mobilization and health promotion.
For more information contact: Steven Maphosa at maphosas@zw.afro.who.int
II. Response
H
EALTHR
ESPONSEThe Health Cluster continues to plan on a worst‐case scenario of 60 000+ cases, as reiterated at the most recent Health Cluster meeting on 16 December. The estimate is based on 6 million people, or half of Zimbabwe's 12 million population, potentially being at risk of contracting cholera with an estimated 1% of those at risk actually suffering from cholera. Detailed updates on the cholera outbreak and interventions in various parts of the country were provided by Help Germany, ICRC, IOM, MSF. On the supply side, the current excessive use of IV fluids is likely to lead to a shortfall as Health Cluster partners (particularly MSF and IOM) have stocks to only last into the first week of January. WHO has finalized a proposal seeking donor support for a Health Cluster Coordinator.
World Health Organization
WHO HQ deployed delegation led by the Assistant Director‐General for the Health Action in Crises Cluster, and the head of WHO's Common Operational Platform for emergency response. The delegation is a unique joint mission between two WHO Clusters – Health Action in Crises and the Health Security in the Environment Cluster. The delegation included a logistician (to streamline supply needs and channels), an epidemiologist (to improve systems for detecting, investigating and managing outbreaks) and a water and sanitation engineer (to assess the health needs associated with water and sanitation issues) as well as a social mobilization officer to strengthen community awareness. On behalf of the Health Cluster, WHO finalised a US$5.9 million proposal to fast‐track a Cholera Command and Control Centre (C4), appoint a Health Cluster Coordinator and procure supplies and equipment for supporting 50 new Cholera Treatment Centres (CTCs). Further, a consignment of 22 metric tonnes (MT) of medical supplies was flown into Harare, including 8 diarrhoeal disease kits, during the first week of December. These materials can treat up to 50,000 patients for three months or 3,200 moderate cholera cases. 7MTof supplies (5 Inter‐Agency Health Kits and 5 Trauma Kits) are in the pipeline. WHO is mobilizing additional drugs and supplies through the WHO Country Office in South Africa.
MSF‐ Holland, Luxembourg and Spain
MSF is the main medical emergency agency running or supporting CTCs around the country. It recently reported that cholera cases in Beitbridge have been decreasing substantially, with 20 cases per day currently compared to 300 cases a day at the beginning of the outbreak. Consideration will be given to closing the MSF supported CTCs there when the reduction of cases reaches 50 per week. An MSF emergency team is conducting assessments in Plumtree (Mangwe District) and crossed into Francistown in Botswana where there were suspected cholera cases. MSF Zambia has also conducted an assessment in one border town that reported cases. MSF Holland and Spain have been providing care and assessments in Chegutu, where more than 600 cases have been reported.
UNICEF
UNICEF has been intensifying support to Cholera Treatment Centres/Units across the country through the provision of medical supplies to all CTCs. Key support has been in the provision of Over 50 000 litres Intravenous (IV) fluids, tens of thousands of ORS Sachets, Cannulas for IV fluids and Tents.
International Organization for Migration
IOM is working with MSF partners to set up and operate CTCs in numerous health facilities in 12 of the 48 affected districts. A team was deployed to northern Zimbabwe where there were 30 cholera cases identified. IOM is also responding to the cholera outbreaks in border areas such as Beitbridge, Plumtree, Chirundu and Sango, as well mobile and vulnerable populations settings. The response includes setting up and managing Cholera Treatment Centres at the Beitbridge and Plumtree Reception and Support Centers among returned migrants from South Africa and Botswana, respectively. Support is being provided to 22 CTCs with drugs and medical supplies, transport and fuel, NFIs (soap, aqua tabs), health education and hygiene promotion. IOM is supporting the establishment of a CTC at Victoria Falls, and is conducting an assessment of the situation in Muzarabani in the Northern Province of Mashonaland Central. In coordination with UNICEF, IOM has been erecting large posters promoting cholera control practices in border areas.
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World Vision International
On 15 December WVI officially handed over to the Ministry of Health & Child Welfare (MoHCW) a large consignment of cholera supplies for the total amount of US$7 million in support of the MoHCW efforts to combat the epidemic. The distribution of the supplies will be facilitated by a WVI supported team at the MoHCW and monitored accordingly.
Other Partners
Plan Zimbabwe has requested the national offices to mobilize resources in cash and kind for the cholera epidemic. Help Germany was scheduled to receive a consignment of medical materials on 12 December and further made a plea for donations to respond to the cholera epidemic. Its urgent needs are to provide medicine and hygiene equipment to Zimbabwe health facilities. IFRC has small‐scale operations in provinces they operate and they delivered 2 cholera kits to Budiriro for 600 severe patients in total. Some 800 volunteers are being mobilized after receiving training in basic first aid, especially in Mudzi. An assessment in Mudzi found that the curative aspect of the CTCs has been handled, in particular by MSF Holland, but a gap existed in terms of prevention activities, social mobilization and health promotion. The Apostolic Faith Church members in the area had a high CFR due to their refusal to receive medicines. IFRC and UNICEF to discuss with recently arrived WHO Mozambique social mobilization expert to advance health promotion activities. A Social Mobilization Task Force has been set up this week.
WASH
R
ESPONSE
Hygiene Promotion: Oxfam is co‐ordinating hygiene promotion for the WASH Cluster members and new partners such as churches. Christian Development Aid and Celebration Ministries are such new partners for hygiene promotion. It is envisaged that by end of next week, over 1,000 hygiene volunteers will be trained and active in their respective areas in Harare. Within this same framework a hygiene promotion committee for Harare gathering 1 representative from each player has been established and will be meeting on a weekly basis. The efforts will be further strengthened by the joining in of health partners to enlarge the scope of the current social mobilisation strategy and enhance hygiene promotion.
Water Supply: Support to new areas e.g. Chegutu has commenced. UNICEF sent a 30 cubic metre tanker for water supply in the most affected area in Chegutu. Water trucking in Harare and surroundings areas still ongoing by GAA.
Sanitation: UNICEF has contracted a company in support of the city council to clear garbage in the city. HIVOS is also supporting the local authorities with the garbage collection in Budiriro.
Additionally, UNICEF directly provided 530 00 litres of portable water trucked everyday to Harare area, commenced trucking water in Chegutu CTC, provided 4 months supply of water treatment chemicals for all towns in Zimbabwe, refuse collection in some of the cholera affected areas, distributed of water treatment tablets and drilling of boreholes in cholera affected areas
Emerging Areas for response
Chegutu Urban: Over the weekend more than 250 cases were reportedly admitted in the CTC. Cumulative figures since 9 November is estimated at 1,010 with very high numbers of deaths at over 100. A major concern is co‐ordination of the WASH interventions. City Health, IOM, Oxfam and UNICEF are supporting the response with water supply and hygiene promotion (distribution of non food items such as soap, water containers, aquatabs and IEC materials).
Gokwe: one suspected (imported) death from Gweru, family members of the deceased are sick and suspected to have cholera. The situation should be closely monitored.
Mudzi: Oxfam is on the ground to monitor the situation. In Ndendera there were 29 admissions, 15 critical and 14 on the recovery. The water supply situation is stable and communities are using the boreholes rehabilitated by Oxfam. At Nyamapanda 12 patients were in the CTC. They are fetching water from boreholes although the distance from the community needs to be addressed by drilling more boreholes. Oxfam GB and Oxfam America are scaling up in this area for rehabilitation of boreholes and expanded hygiene promotion. Total cumulative figure since October is 1,600+ cases and 77 deaths. MSF has scaled down at the CTC and sending more staff to Chegutu.
Bulawayo: The situation in Bulawayo is stable, well contained with support from various actors. World vision is co‐
ordinating the WASH response. There are 56 cumulative cases and 5 deaths over the last 4 weeks. The Bulawayo City Council is doing a commendable work to contain the response. Lead Trust (Oxfam implementing partner), Dabane Trust, Churches and Bulawayo residents association are spreading the cholera alert intensively to all suburbs.
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Chipinge: There is a water shortage since Saturday as a generator at the pumping station got broken. The network use to supply water to half of the city population (15,000 people). ACF, MDM and UNICEF met the authorities and conducted a rapid technical evaluation of the situation at the pumping station. Discussions have been engaged with the ICRC and UNICEF to find a swift solution. In the meantime Water tinkering is needed until a new generator is purchased and installed at the pumping station. Discussions are ongoing to address this as well.
F
OODR
ESPONSE
WFP, as the food aid cluster lead, has been working within the OCHA led Inter‐Cluster Task Force on a food support protocol for CTC/Us. WFP also participates in the Logistics Working Group and a proposal has been developed for Emergency Response Fund for logistical support on the cholera response. OCHA has been maintaining an updated a list of the CTC/CTUs with cumulative figures and new admissions in last week to the inter‐cluster stakeholders for both WFP/C‐SAFE to plan adequately any relevant food support and response. In response to an inter‐cluster working group request, WHO is now including kitchen sets into their cholera center kits, and the WASH cluster is including the safe water supply needs for food preparation in their safe water response.
The next operational phase will focus on identifying relevant food operators in relevant CTCs/CTUs in coordination with C‐
SAFE and medical operators. It has been agreed that C‐SAFE would respond in priority in their areas of operations and WFP in its respective areas of operation, both using the above established food support protocol from now on. Engagement with the MSFs on the issue of safe water supply is still ongoing. The setting up of the food protocol is a positive step as it abides by the medical criteria specifically mitigation of contamination vector being the main objective.
Responsibilities for food support to the CTCs/CTUs in the different cholera‐affected areas have been shared as follows;
Food support to CTC/U under C‐SAFE areas:
CRS ‐ Chegutu CTC (MSF‐Spain) as of mid December WV ‐ Beitbridge (IOM/MSF‐Spain) as of mid December CARE ‐ Masvingo as of last week (tbc)
Food support to CTC/U under WFP areas:
Under negotiation with MSF‐Luxemburg (as the WFP food operator) in Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, within 5 rural CTU settings (5 different districts of these two provinces). Operational details are being finalized and food dispatches are planned in the coming days.
UNICEF has provided some 2,500 cholera awareness posters for distributions through WFP Corporate Partners. These will be put up in the WFP assisted institutions (such as schools) and at the VGF Food Distribution Points. Several WFP partners are providing cholera awareness and basic hygiene information through their programmes, such as AFRICARE, CARE, IOM, MCT and others.
D
ONORR
ESPONSE
DFID met with the WHO HQ delegation on 9 December to discuss Cholera Command and Control Centre proposal and plans for a Health Cluster Coordinator. In the last 12 months DFID has donated about £25 million to support the health sector in Zimbabwe.
USAID On 4 December, USAID/OFDA deployed a two‐member assessment team including the public health and WASH Adviser to assist in the response of the epidemic. The team visited Chitungwiza South where it found cases were steadily increasing. USAID provided US$600,000 to WASH Cluster in response to the cholera outbreak. Over the past few years the US Government has donated over US$175 million in aid and has been providing at least US$ 10 million on other humanitarian assistance annually. It is also providing US$ 26.8 million annually to support HIV/AIDS interventions.
European Commission The EC is providing 22 million Euros in 2009 for the Zimbabwean health sector, focusing on human resources retention, supply of essential medicines, and training of health personnel.
The Netherlands recently topped up their earlier pledge and have now allocated a total of 5 million Euros for cholera response.
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I
NTER‐C
LUSTERC
OORDINATION
• The WASH and Health clusters, with inputs from the Food Working Group are putting the last hand on a consolidated cholera response plan.
• In Chegutu, MSF, UNICEF and WHO have been among multiple players collaborating to ensure a fast and positive response to the outbreak. These parties have also been holding joint meetings with provincial and district authorities.
The WASH Cluster has sent water and sanitation materials to the area. Other parties sending supplies and teams include Concern Worldwide, IOM, MSF Spain, Oxfam,. Supplies identified as being urgently needed included Ringer Lactate, Oral Rehydration Salts and cannulae.
• The Health and WASH clusters have been meeting weekly to coordinate cholera response interventions. The last meeting was on 10 December.
• A WHO HQ water and sanitation engineer has arrived as part of the WHO delegation to enhance Health‐WASH cluster coordination.
• WHO, on behalf of the Health Cluster, and WFP, on behalf of the Logistics Cluster, together with the MoHCW are preparing a service level agreement to distribute supplies from the central level to the provincial levels, from where distribution of materials should reach the CTCs.
• Both Health and Wash Clusters have divided the coordination tasks up by province according to organization field presence.
There are more and more actors willing to get involved in the WASH response to the cholera crisis. The mapping of who is doing what where (3W) for the WASH Cluster has been drafted and circulated for inputs. OCHA will provide mapping support and aims to complete the 3W this week. Oxfam is coordinating the scale‐up of hygiene promotion. By 19 December OCHA Zimbabwe will introduce a dedicated section to cholera on the OCHA website for easy access by the wider public. The WHO‐
supported interactive CTC map will be included in this section, as well as all relevant updates, bulletins, situation reports and other background information documents, such as graphs, statistics, maps.
Statistics
Daily cholera updates including updated statistics help to inform all partners to scale up interventions.
Scaling up of activities
ACF, Oxfam, and UNICEF are scaling up their response. Oxfam will be active in Bulawayo, Gweru, Harare, Kadoma, Masvingo, Mudzi, Mutare, and working with implementing partners. Funding has been received from Bill Gates Foundation and OFDA.
For more information contact: Steven Maphosa at maphosas@zw.afro.who.int (Health Cluster Coordinator), Souleymane Sow at ssow@unicef.org and Penninah Mathenge at pmathenge@oxfam.org.uk (WASH Cluster Coordinator and Co‐Lead) for WASH, Elise Benoit at Elise.Benoit@wfp.org (Food Aid Coordinator).
III. Gaps and needs
The urgent needs on the health side are identified in the consolidated Cholera Operational Response Plan, particularly the provision of incentives to health workers to return to their posts to treat cholera patients, case investigation and hygiene promotion. Important progress has been made ensuring effective coordination among all health partners involved in the cholera response. Outstanding gaps include the need to provide more clean drinking water in health facilities, further strengthening the disease reporting, monitoring and assessment under WHO leadership, and the procurement of more cholera treatment supplies.
The water and sanitation facilities and infrastructure are run down with no regular water supply to densely populated areas;
there is a need to scale up water trucking operations. The Health Cluster has finalised a gap analysis data collection template which has been deployed to cluster members.
IV. Coordination
The following arrangements have been put in place by the IASC to facilitate effective humanitarian coordination:
1. WASH and Health clusters mobilised and coordinating the response.
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2. Possible gap areas in coordination support are being monitored by the country IASC, as well as needs for surge capacity from HQ and the regional level. Agencies requested to look into the possibility of gearing up to emergency mode and divert available funds from development towards humanitarian aid.
3. WFP to coordinate local logistical support to the cholera response
4. Daily Cholera Updates to be issued by WHO on figures (not including gaps/response)
5. Weekly Cholera Situation Report to be issued by OCHA on gaps analysis, response and figures.
6. Weekly IASC CT Cholera meetings every Wednesday at 11:00am
7. Bi‐weekly Donor/IASC CT Cholera meetings on Fridays at 10:30 (next meeting at 10:30am on 19 December at Takura House)
8. Weekly Inter‐Cluster Task Force meetings led by OCHA on Tuesday afternoons
9. Agencies requested to look into the possibility of gearing up to emergency mode and divert available funds from development towards humanitarian aid.
CONTACT DETAILS Georges Tadonki
Head of Office (Harare), +263 4 792681
Rania Dagash
Desk Officer (New York), +1 917 367 3668
Elizabeth Byrs
Press contact (Geneva), +41 22 917 2653
Stephanie Bunker
Press contact (New York), +1 917 367 5126